No I'm pretty sure he didn't. If he had just set the videos to private and not allowed others to see them I'm like 99% sure that would've been fine.
He absolutely could have just made something private. Something doesn't necessarily infringe on someone copyright just because it exists. He could have done any number of things that didn't gut his viewer numbers and his placement in rankings. Were the copyright strikes kind a dick move, absolutely. Could YT have worked with him a bit, sure. However he is the only one who jumped the gun on a solution that didn't need to happen. It's like an arson setting fire to your building, and you jump out the window and want to sue the guy who those medical bills incurred.
i think you lose the views if you set a video private.
Just looked this up and it looks like yes, if you make it private the view count drops. If it's unlisted it doesn't (but that would still run afoul of YT's copyright system). It still stands though if he had made the videos private he could have then focused on solving the issue, and then getting those views back.