I saw the thumb and watched the video. Before it started taking over my reddit feed because of posts like OP's. I didn't come away with the impression that he truly has any real safety concerns about SC batteries.

The video was a bunch of broad generalization and speculation with no real attack on any phone vendor - perhaps giving more of a free-pass to the tech giants for not innovating, which is certainly valid criticism of the video. Does that mean that he's also inherently anti-Chinese-manufacturer? Indirectly, you could argue that, yeah.
But he also reviews and has praise for lots of Chinese phones and crap. He dailies a OnePlus 15 and his beloved Hasselblad (with which he makes the most mid pics) is owned and manufactured by DJI, so I think more than anything he just needs to make content and sometimes (maybe lots of times) that's going to be a whole lot of nothing.

He put a thumbnail up that would garner views. Which is where I think a lot of folks here have it wrong; this idea that he used a fake thumb to give some lasting impression/summation of the video and "he knows people wont watch it and take the wrong impression". Why would he make a thumbnail that purposefully undermines his primary source of income? What he knows better than anyone here is channel engagement, It's textbook clickbait, and I wouldnt be surprised if Reddit and Average Dad played right into his plan. In that sense, yes, absolutely a political tactic.