i still don’t understand how it’s doing a defense of patriarchy

It’s reaffirming the centrality of men, that he, as a man, has to be considered in his particular case as a matter of course in this discussion. You might disagree and think that it was an appropriate place for such a question; however, there is also an implicit refutation of the claim that men are trained to inflict suffering by asking how he has been if he never leaves his house. It’s honestly kind of a non-sequitur; you don’t have to be engaged in inflicting suffering to have been trained to do so.