Scary, and does youtube even pay that much? Isn't it like $1000 per million views?
That ($1 cpm) would be relatively low.
Average cpm is $2. Depending on numerous variables, this can go higher — $7-$13 is average cpm for certain high value niches.
In terms of cost effectiveness — that is, leaving out the ethics aspect — this gambit could make sense if he converts those views somewhere else in a sales funnel (not sure he has one). As a simple example, increasing his subscribers will likely raise the floor for his views of future videos. A more complex example might be using that video as a lead generator for a gofundme.
I haven’t really looked into the economics of this particular niche, but a savvy marketer could turn those views into additional money by using it as a feeder into a sales funnel of some sort.
So 100k new subscribers could be worth millions of views over a one year period.
Do have a look at his other video titles. He seems to do a fair bit of unfathomable stuff.