Even a 46 is a lot. My drop bar ROAD!!! bike which is carbon everything has 46/30 chainrings on it. It does double duty as a gravel bike which is why I have that gearing but even on the road with my 28mm slicks the 46 is plenty. On a normal ride I run out of gearing for maybe 0.2% of my ride and I just coast on those sections of downhills.
This isn't even an XC bike he is riding on the road. It is a 140mm trail/enduro hardtail with + tires. Anything over a 42 is extremely optimistic, even that is honestly.