Not that I think he intends to do anything by implanting those ideas...he just believes them himself, AFAICT

Inducing others to hold my beliefs is doing something.
And in particular, when they are beliefs that don't derive from those people's observations of the world, but rather from their belief in my reports about the world, one of the things it is doing is increasing my status within the group.

Not that there's anything intrinsically wrong with using newcomers to a group to bolster my own group status, but it's not nothing.