And facebook is not the internet or television, which is why it doesn't make any sense as an analogy. Comparing how many TV viewers MTV gets to how many internet users facebook gets would be a reasonable analogy. Comparing how many internet users facebook gets to how many people have cable is nonsensical.
In my opinion, if you are sitting on a marketing budget for a retail product trying to make decisions, they are important facts to have.
I would say that knowing the absolute reach of as many channels as possible is important including billboards etc. If you expect a 0.5% conversion rate, as long as you filter out ones that reach less than a million people a week, all of your options represent a serious return.
That doesn't make a senseless analogy any less senseless. I didn't say "you shouldn't talk about how many users facebook has", in fact I talked about how many they have. I said that the analogy he made doesn't make any sense. Facebook isn't comparable to cable, it is comparable to a channel.