Greed
Pseudo science, UFOs, aliens amoung us types take advantage of people's desire to believe. They take something that is plausable or partially real and build an intricate false narrative around it. Aliens almost certainly exist out there in the universe, but that's a long way from the nonsense Loeb suggests. He's in it for the money. He wants to be filthy rich and doesn't care how he gets there. Just like the grifters who have taken over the GOP and get mega wealthy selling conspiracy bullshit they don't even believe themselves. To a far lesser degree some of that is happening on the left too, but liberals tend to have much better bullshit filters.