I had a problem when reading this as well.
"you need to understand the rules before you break them."
It's rather incomplete, empty.
To me, this phrase simply means that if you understand the rules, then when you break them, you also understand and accept that there can very likely be consequences afterwards. Consequences that are good and/or bad.
Bonsai practitioners cannot do whatever we want to a tree, then get mad afterwards if we happen to make it look "ugly" or even kill it as a result. Pretty much whenever you hear that someone is "thinking outside the box", they are in essence operating outside of the rules. They likely understand the rules for the given situation, but are choosing to break them.
If you're well-versed in the established/proven rules and techniques, it makes you better-equipped to break them or operate outside them. This is how we've ended up with almost every technical advancement of the human race. Yes, many new things are discovered by accident (looking at you, Penicillin), but much advancement comes from those who are already very knowledgeable in a given field.
In the other direction, we have those who are simply unaware of the rules. Then we end up with the saying
Ignorantia juris non excusat, which basically means "Ignorance of the law is not an excuse." A driver can't do 55 mph in a school zone just because they aren't aware that it's a school zone. A cop would still issue a ticket, despite the driver's ignorance of the law. Bonsai novices (myself included in this group) often break the rules simply out of ignorance, not because they're trying to pioneer a new technique.
Gobbledegook.
?
