He may not know it or have intended it, but he was going to make money on it. Half of post payouts are given in SP, which he would still keep after paying the voters for their votes. Had each of those voters instead posted a productive comment on someone else's post and then used that same voting power to upvote their comment, they would each receive the same SBD, plus the SP that in these schemes goes to the poster, plus rewards of both types from anyone else who liked their comment and upvoted it.

I'll give @aaalxnovaphobia the benefit of the doubt and assume he was just copying the other people who do this without realizing it scams the minnows too, but it does.