The arguments Richard makes are perfect equivocation:
(A) Either he is a scammer and will giggle his ass off once he bagged ump-teen thousand ETH and just fades away with a modest 'Thanks, you Morons', or
(B) he has some really cool plans to make this into a really useful thing with all the properties and activities other than just being an erc20 require.
HEX is a good idea, RH is probably sincere, but being so public he will most likely run into SEC troubles, leading to some possibilities,
1- RH on his knees in a prison shower block making new friends
2- all the collected ETH being returned to sending addresses
3- a small EOS sized fine
It could be a combo of 1 & 2 , rh would love 3 but imo it is much less likely, there's a minute chance Richard gets away without any regulators probing him.
What is almost certain, every smart contract platform will have clones and modified copies of HEX, some could be very promising, interest paying store of value cryptos without third party custody is obviously popular.