It is partially true.
I have been into content writing and SEO for last three years. So far, I have realized that the pages of my website that ranked high on Google were the ones that satisfied the intent of users, irrespective of the word count.
The first two paragraphs will help you win 90% of the battle as users often access information on their mobile phones. Due to less screen resolution, they continue scrolling down your content or bounce away based on the information that is present on the top.
In other words, users make your webpage a sensation not the Googlebots. Then why won't bots love your webpage or site.
To conclude, natural occurrence of keywords, on-page factors (like meta title, meta description, alt text etc), and backlinks posted on websites having good domain authority boosts your web page on Google.