I think there’s a happy medium here. Kids don’t always know what’s in their best interests and you don’t want to close doors, but @thumper1 often writes that her kid was able to go into engineering without taking Calculus in high school, and I can tell you that my older son got into Harvard (and my younger son into U. of Chicago) without taking AP English. They both had taken lots of other APs and they each got an A+ in the English elective they took instead. (They also both got rejected from other equally selective colleges where that missing AP may have made a difference.) They were both avid readers and did very well on the verbal portion of the SAT, but they were so much happier senior year not having to read a pile of stuffy classics.
At any rate it sounds like the OP’s kid is listening to teachers and I agree that helping him perform better with organizational skills may be more effective for him.