Curiosity does increase the likelihood of survival by expanding the information an organism has or simply have it wander into a more effective or new way of living.
I believe he is absolutely correct when it comes to curiosity increasing the likelihood of survival of a species (ignoring the species problem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Species_problem). Because others learn from the curiosity of others as well as the one that is curious. Even if the occasional damage is dealt to a species through curiosity, the other members will likely learn and benefit from the mistakes previous beings have made.
I wonder how related this is to the mechanics behind confirmation bias. We all have a tendency to seek out get evidence that matches our "predictions" so to say.
Maybe what we define as curiosity is actually just searching for the little hit of dopamine you get when you're right.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_know_that_I_know_nothing