I think Josh must be confusing the words "pledge" with "earn favor".
Being able to survive the fall was always a matter of finishing the quest of a god, and making a promise was always optional. It is so because there was a possibility to get the Wael's Boon in Sun in Shadow, only when you didn't make any promises earlier. This boon was cut from the game (still present in the files, though, and accesible through console commands), but if your character doesn't want to make any promises (thus he/she gets no boon) then you don't have to make any promises.
This way you are free to choose the desired ending regarding the souls of the Hollowborn without any repercussions of breaking an oath to a god, because you haven't got any.
Simple as that.