As horrible as Adams is, Sliwa would have been a bazillion times worse. He's a regular talking head on Fox , so It would have been nightly sound bites following the example of Trump when he was in office, or Herschel Walker sound bites - that bad.
FYI There were some decent Dems in the Primary to choose from. They were too alike though [milquetoast progressives] and none of them got enough notice so somehow Adams took it.