Lost excited audiences for six seasons with an endless line of conversation-starting twists and surprises, and The Good Place has done much the same thing, especially with its finale, in which it was revealed that The Good Place that Kristen Bell’s Eleanor & Co. have been kicking around in is ACTUALLY The Bad Place, and Ted Danson’s Michael is totally closer to a Devil figure than a Godlike entity.
(Though I suppose a gorgeous island is thematically comparable to the “utopia” of Good Place.)
Lost was also good about having characters’ allegiances get twisted, so that matches up as well.
Mike Schur might not have been making such direct references to Lost or its story elements, but as far as the narrative structure goes, he definitely wasn’t lying.