To me, the relevant part is "provokes for a living." I don't take what he or the people voting in that poll are taking seriously, though for entirely different reasons: I don't take the vote seriously for the reasons I listed earlier. I don't take him seriously because I think, like anyone whose livelihood depends on stirring the pot, he's simply uninterested in truth. I don't think he means it, but I also don't think he's pretending to mean it, either. I think he doesn't even think in those terms any more.
Basically, it matters less and less that something starts in jest. (1) There are people that will take it seriously even if it is clearly just for provocation and (2) people see the signal that you can harass under the guise of joking/trolling and imitate it.
I have no doubt that a lot of the rape/death threats to female celebrities are from people who aren't actually planning to commit the act, but it's still destructive to their well-being.
Honestly if this was the only thing Milo has done, I seriously couldn't care less. But when I see it, I'm just reminded that he pushes this rhetoric as his profession and that in total this sort of thing has caused real harm.
Not trying to convince you on anything here, have no reason to think you agree or disagree even, just kinda talking out loud.