Since he only get money per view the number of subscribers don't mean anything. That's why deleting his channel won't really affect him at all.
Further it is a pure publicity stunt on his part as he isn't even leaving youtube behind. As such it doesn't qualify as protest.
I also think youtube makes more profit off trending videos that he calls "clickbait" then personality based content and that's why youtube doesn't give a shit about the big youtubers.
If only 5% comes from "big" youtubers and 95% comes from viral videos why would you put the subscribers on the main page and not the recommended trending ones? Youtubers think they are more important to the website than they actually are.