The amide (trans-4-methyl-5-phenyl-oxazolid-2-one) would not give 4-MAR upon reduction, it would lack a nitrogen atom. It has a double-bonded oxygen where 4-MAR has a double-bonded nitrogen (in one of the resonance forms). You cannot reductively aminate amides.
On the other hand, it seems like you are correct in your critisism of
Post 212038
(Rhodium: "4-Methylaminorex Synth w/o CNBr", Novel Discourse) - it seems like I switched around compound
VI and
IV when transcribing the information from
J Chem Soc, 850-854 (1952), the experimental part of that article is not especially structured, they use ephedrine and pseudoephedrine derivatives alternately, and not simply all the reactions of ephedrine derivatives first, and all pseudoephedrine derivative reactions second.
It seems like the correct reaction table should look like this:
Using the Potassium cyanate route:Norephedrine ->
trans-4-MAR
Norpseudoephedrine -> "Amide"
Using the Cyanogen Bromide route:Norephedrine ->
cis-4-MAR
Norpseudoephedrine ->
trans-4-MAR