From my understanding, all the locals where this happened think this dude is a colossal dumbass.

I think his legacy is slowly changing though, and people are less impressed by his antics today than when it happened.

He wasn’t a dumbass, he was just suicidal.
He first left his privileged life, then his family and friends, then society.
If he actually wanted to keep living, he could have left the bus and simply walked back, 3 days before his provisions ran out (it takes 6 hours to get to the trailhead).
But he stayed, even though he didn’t have the skills to live off the land. He accepted death, until it came close, then he regretted his decision and tried to get out.

I think he was stranded because of a flooded river though? From memory there was a reason he couldn’t just walk out.

The reason was him refusing to bring a map, which would have shown a bridge over the river less than a mile away.
And not scouting out his environment either, or even trying a detour along the river, or improvising a raft…