I agree with your assessment of Lindsey.
However, it should be remembered that Lindsey was personally a student of John Walvoord, the second president of the Dallas Theological Seminary who was the acknowledged dean of Dispensationalist theology until his death in 2002.
Lindsey is a popularizer, like the even more successful Tim LaHaye, but he is a mainstream proponent of DTS theology.
Lindsey is not on the Dispensationalist fringe, but is at the center of the movement.
That's a very serious - and true - indictment of the Dispensationalist crowd as a whole. The man has proven himself to be a false prophet, yet people still take him seriously; I find that unbelievable.