Well, there are multiple errors. For instance DOS EXE files are not flat binaries. They have a header, multiple segments, relocations etc. And also the statement that NASM can only output flat binaries is bizarre, given the list of supported binary formats which can easily be obtained by running nasm -hf:
valid output formats for -f are (`*' denotes default):
* bin flat-form binary files (e.g. DOS .COM, .SYS)
ith Intel hex
srec Motorola S-records
aout Linux a.out object files
aoutb NetBSD/FreeBSD a.out object files
coff COFF (i386) object files (e.g. DJGPP for DOS)
elf32 ELF32 (i386) object files (e.g. Linux)
elf64 ELF64 (x86_64) object files (e.g. Linux)
elfx32 ELFX32 (x86_64) object files (e.g. Linux)
as86 Linux as86 (bin86 version 0.3) object files
obj MS-DOS 16-bit/32-bit OMF object files
win32 Microsoft Win32 (i386) object files
win64 Microsoft Win64 (x86-64) object files
rdf Relocatable Dynamic Object File Format v2.0
ieee IEEE-695 (LADsoft variant) object file format
macho32 NeXTstep/OpenStep/Rhapsody/Darwin/MacOS X (i386) object files
macho64 NeXTstep/OpenStep/Rhapsody/Darwin/MacOS X (x86_64) object files
dbg Trace of all info passed to output stage
elf ELF (short name for ELF32)
macho MACHO (short name for MACHO32)
win WIN (short name for WIN32)