I'm in the "no" camp. Maybe I'd feel differently in the actual situation, but looking at it from my comfortable chair, and giving it serious consideration, I don't think I'd do that. If I have the means to chop down even one power pole, much less four, I surely could try to signal some other way. I wouldn't be comfortable with the chance of putting others' lives at risk.

Yeah, they should be prepared for a possible power loss if it's that critical to their survival, but that still doesn't give me the right to force that on them. Not even to save my own life.

OTOH, I'm not him, and maybe he truly had no other way to signal, due to lack of means and/or knowledge. I'm not sure I would have thought of this, and I applaud his ingenuity.