It can be a helpful strategy, but it won't lower your score much at first, and it's not really a "payoff" if it's a transfer, is it?
Suppose you have 5 credit cards with balances totaling $10,000, and you open a new card with a $10,000 limit and transfer all the balances. Now you have 6 credit cards and your overall balance is still $10,000. This will reduce your credit score in the short term, not raise it.
If you pay off the new card without adding more debt to the old cards, your score will improve and you really will be paying off your debts. If you only make small payments on the new card and add more debt to your old cards, you will be in the classic credit card death spiral.
It probably only makes sense to do a balance transfer if the new interest rate is significantly lower than your current rates and you think you can pay off the new transfer before the rate increases. The only real way to pay off credit card debt is to stop spending more than you can afford.
