Hey John,
The information you heard is partly correct. However they did leave something that is very important out.
1440/1080 = 1.33333333 (or 4:3). HOWEVER, the pixel aspect ratio is 3:2 or 1.5. That is crucial to have a correct output from your NLE.
With that said, I would stay in 1440x1080 all the way. Even though 1440x810 is 16x9, your PAR would still be 3:2 so you are rescaling the image (bad for field interpolation).
Or you can go 1280x720 with a PAR of 1:1 (square pixels) BUT the render will be long, as you are changing the pixel dimension AND the resolution.
Staying at 1440x1080, you would not change resolution OR PAR, therefore this will be the most efficient (time wise) workflow, but not ideal for quality.
Mikey M. 🙂