He has moments where he brushes up against clarity. One of the biggest of these are when he makes the grandiose claims that his findings will be validated "someday". And he'll be hailed as a prophet/teacher/scientist/god "someday". But he deliberately always puts it off in the distant future. This is the functioning part of Brad saying
"I better set this benchmark after I'm long dead, so I won't be around to see the fallout when it doesn't happen." If Brad completely believed that Nestor and 7_4 were true, he would try to make predictions that could vindicate him in the here and now. But no, Brad's grasp on reality ebbs and flows, and when he's on the more lucid end of the spectrum, he hedges his bets.
It's worth noting that one of the few times he made
a short-term prediction was when he hit Stage Six, and
literally the opposite of what he predicted to happen came true.