when u stitch u can specify where you want the iso to connect.
for example his eye patch has a total of six spans in the V direction, so when he stitch it to the big mouth surface he tells the stich node where to start and where to end the stitch.
Like ice Queen says, Nurbs are indded fustrating, but they yield more realistic results and deformations than poly or subD, most studios when they use close shot, they use NURBS replica of actors... except for GOLLUM:bow: his modeling had some great artists working on it. maybe they converted to sub-D... i don't really know.
but to answer your Q's, i was a bit confused too when i saw the authors's wires, until i tried it, i even modified it a bit and ended up with even less patches and more continuous flow, so i had no stiching (or very little)where the surface would deform when talking etc...
https://www.geocities.com/vladimirjp/patchHead.html