The fact that the event caused him to apparently give up flying would seem to suggest that it was not a stunt.
One of the things I do on flight reviews or during emergency training is simulate a partial loss of power. A complete power loss is “easy” in that the decision to land in the first available landing spot is made for you. But a partial power loss now means you have to decide if you continue on to find a better spot (possibly an airport) and risk the engine cutting out completely over less hospitable terrain, or set down now in the first available spot that you know for sure you can make. And landing with even partial power is easier than a complete engine-out landing.
So assuming there was nothing intentional about this, and that it wasn’t just a case of fuel exhaustion as a result of poor preflight or flight planning, I can’t fault this particular pilot for landing where he did.