Seems like it might be a better idea to colonise cold and warm parts of the earth + work on living on sea plus underground. Then there is also working on building upwards. Long time before with are able to live on mars imo.
You're partially right. However, humanity does not like saving the Earth or working to prolong the environment of certain places. Humanity likes to destroy for their own amusement. Mars is a very good candidate for a colony. However, the problem isn't really the technology right now (we can get there), the problem is money. Obviously the US (as a example) could easily fund it considering their unnecessary defense budget. For a company and a unknown CEO this is really problematic. A lot of money is needed, money that is hard to come by.
Well technically just because the plan is flawed, that doesn't make it a scam. However,
from the research being done in regards to it, it seems highly unlikely that it will launch/succeed.