That's really bad advise, because he still has to pay taxes in Germany and Atlas creates a huge mess.

Can you describe the mess Atlas creates?

Atlas is built to form a registered Delaware Corp with an agent and a corporate bank account in the US. If your goal is to be acquired or go the traditional startup route then it's perfect. If you just want to roll a new entity for legal/financial protection it is akin to combating mosquitos with a grenade.

Because atlas costs $500?

If you just want some legal/financial protection, most countries have a simplified way to form a basic company (in the US it's LLC) that you can easily file for yourself, and usually the taxes are easier then say a C corp.

Atlas was designed to correctly setup a company to become acquired or go public. You simply don't need those features and the complexity included on the cap table, taxes, etc.

No, because you're creating a company in a country you don't live in unnecessarily.