I think he knows. It's you who is missing the obvious. Imagine you win lottery jackpot with £10,000. You will be overjoyed right. But then find that the jackpot is going to be shared with 100 of your work colleagues. Next thing your looking at getting just £100. Now £100 is okay but no reason to have a orgasm over.
It's the per capita that matters.
Ps. Looked at from GDP point of view Pakistan is bigger then many European countries like Ireland and just few slots behind Israel. But that is no brag rights. Rather it's other way around. It's embarrasing because population of those countries is tiny.
In that case even country like Finland should be the super power, as they have higher per-capita income.Per-capita matters, but in real world, collective income+population+soft power+military power+resources+total economic figure+yearly growth rate+forex reserves+export+fdi and infrastructure+stock exchange market cap+MNC's presence etc matters most...