He’s making it clear that his performance was what was expected of him, even if that didn’t come through in what the studio saw.
It’s also possible that Ehrenreich’s comments to Esquire are meant to hit back at the reports that Lucasfilm had such a problem with his performance that an acting coach was hired.
While the actor says he was clear about what his directors wanted from him, so much of what a movie becomes is done after filming that it’s hard for him to really know what others saw simply based on his performance.
Many of the rumors that came out during the transition away from Phil Lord and Chris Miller implied that the directing duo was working fairly slowly, and letting the actors do a lot of improvisation.