Indeed, for someone like me, your basic introverted nerd, Mr. Sorensen’s statement was something of a compliment. The moral: it’s hard to figure out in advance what pitfalls or hazards may eventually be created by one’s dramatic or comedic sally.
The statement that the Seinfeld Show was “a show about nothing” might have seemed to some to be a self-deprecating or philosophical remark--perhaps from those involved in producing the show, or perhaps from a critic. But “self-deprecating or philosophical” may not really be the correct way to characterize the description of the Seinfeld Show--as being "about nothing." To me, "about nothing" seems more like something thought up by those in the business office--intentionally misleading, perhaps.
If that guess is right, "the show about nothing" might be described as a kind of a slogan.
It may have originated from the producers or from public relations at NBC–in an effort to avoid complications that arise when someone claims that this or that vignette from Seinfeld had this or that real-life origin.
The emergence of reality shows, about 2000 or so, was probably an effort to avoid the sort of problem discussed above–by making the source of material completely transparent. While reality shows may thus be safer from one business perspective, from another perspective–ratings–they may be less safe. That's because reality shows tend to be rather insipid.
So the problem that networks and producers may have is as follows: that which is completely unreal is also completely uninteresting. And viewers may have an innate desire to see, not only reality, but reality that has been enhanced in some way.
I should perhaps add as a caveat that I’ve never actually worked in the TV industry and my observations may tend to be slightly on the theoretical side.
(Novelists are rarely sued for libel, perhaps because good novelists are usually better writers than those who do television. A good wirter may tend to rely less on thinly-disguised personal anecdotes. A good writer may have a point of view and a greater capacity for abstraction. So I'd recommend to TV executives that they hire better writers.
Cheapest isn't always best.)
But I’ve tried to indicate some of the reasons why a network or the producers of a comedy show might want to avoid having their sources of inspiration revealed. And that's the sort of thing that seems to have played a part in obscuring the genesis of WKRP.
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