I think he's confusing the key-derivation function this article talks about for your "master key" with the MAC-in-JS this particular thread is discussing.

i wasn't suggesting that they were comparable, rather that in mega's system a pbkdf makes more sense where they chose to use cbc-mac.

without going back and looking at the mega js, i recall it working as follows

password --> CBC-MAC --> master key --> decrypt RSA private key with derived master key

if you're deriving a key from a password, seems to make sense to use a password-based key derivation function.