Scott Adams lit the touch-paper on his comic syndication when he saw a more lucrative market. I don't think he's at all stupid no matter what I think of his ethics.
That's not what happened.
He's lost 80% of his income because of this. He said he did not expect to be cancelled by his syndication company, just by a bunch of more newspapers that has already happened to him several times before.
I believe him when he says he did what he did because he's in a financial position to do it and wanted to push the race discussion in a new direction.
Long time, he might eventually end up financially better off, that remains to be seen, but it's certainly no the case at the moment. Now that he's been "completely cancelled ", he's now more free to say what he wants. And that's not my speculation, this is stuff he has said.