No, "degrowth as a model for combating climate change" is indeed fundamentally about poor people. Because there will be about 8 billion of not-westerners in a few decades, and they rapidly get out of poverty, increasing their carbon impact. Look at Chinese emissions; multiply by a few times and you get Africa and South-East Asia getting somewhat closer to the global middle class in 50 years without technological decoupling. On the other hand, if countries can grow out of poverty sustainably, there is no reason for already developed countries to "degrow".
Talking about "degrowth" doesn't just imply that you somehow get a say in allowing countries to grow, but also suggests that people aren't allowed to get out of poverty. This is unconscionable and unrealistic, a distraction from the only real answer — engineering our way out of it.