I don't believe this is the interview I was thinking of, but it does have a bit about what I was talking about (and your mention of Max and Milia):
"Also, when I went to the United States, I talked to many people and they all liked Max. Perhaps Americans like "genius pilots" better than Japanese do...? I thought that kind of popularity might prove valuable later down the line, and in a certain sense, it has. You could say the idea to bring Max and Miria back (in Macross 7) was an idea that was born during a visit to the US."
and
"Also, I'm hoping Macross 7 can make it on the air in the US"
This doesn't really get into what I was talking about, though. We had a discussion about this a LONG time ago, years ago. Back like 2000-ish. I should poke around here, see if I can find it.