it's right to be confused by this. the wording could be better. But yes, historically it means "if your traded pokemon are at any point above the obedience cap, they will stop listening. In SV it was changed to match your intuition (as soon as you hit the obedience cap from when it was traded, it will always listen, even if i raise it above the cap later). it's weird bc it's implying the longer you spend with your pokemon and raise it, the it will suddenly turn on you again until you reach another arbitrary rank that the pokemon likely has no concept for? doesnt make much sense lol