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The second point is the "hanging by the periscope". It's a nice trick, but he does say "...if the sea is calm enough and the boat's well trimmed..." This means that if the sea is perfectly calm you can sit and wait for a convoy, or sit perfectly still trying to avoid the escorts, at periscope depth and with your periscope raised.
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It does work but as far as I read it was something that will only work for a limited amounted of time anyway. Eventually you will need to compensate by conventional means as the volume provided by the periscope will only enable you to fiddle so much with buoyancy.
I did not consider the implications of the "scope extended" but once you think about it is quite logical. In effects the submarine is actually
floating, albeit with very little positive buoyancy. This means that the u-boat can benefit from the equilibrium (precarious given forces involved but notheless real) inherent in such condition. Static hovering at depth of course wil require very careful compensation .