It’s like Goenka: they clearly believed in rebirth, but they also clearly knew that westerners insist on using intellectual pondering to evaluate phenomena like rebirth.

The Buddha directly said that karma exists BUT you derail your enlightenment attempting to use intellectual pondering to fully grasp how karma goes from one life to the next.

The suttas and various traditions say that virtue and jhana enable a practitioner to strengthen the mind to a level where they can perceive the mechanics of complex things like karma and past lives.

In conclusion: since things like karma / rebirth were deemed “un-graspable through pondering,” and westerners are highly attached to pondering, it comes as no surprise to see teachers in countries like USA focusing on precepts and meditation, which will open some people up to the “non secular” messages found in the suttas.