In Remedial Chaos Theory, Abed experiences six different timelines. Each one is imperfect in some way. He travels to each one, but each has their own problems. The Annie end leaves the group with a lot of unresolved tension over the gun. The Shirley end results in Shirley leaving the group. The Pierce timeline has Jeff and Troy on cold terms with each other. The Britta end has Britta running off with the pizza guy, Pierce having a breakdown, and Jeff and Annie with unresolved romantic tension. The Troy end is LITERALLY referred to in canon as the darkest timeline. The Abed end has the entire group disliking each other. So, he SHIFTs to just before the dice roll, instead of any of the timelines where he rolls the dice, and, armed with the knowledge of the other timelines, prevents the whole ordeal from occuring, similar to the ending of ZTD.

In addition, the season 3 finale has a plotline about darkest timeline Abed trying to SHIFT into the golden timeline. ZTD introduced the idea of SHIFTing switching the positions of alternate versions of oneself. It follows, then, that if one version of Abed switched places with so many other different versions of Abed, at least one of them would want turnabout. DT Abed, as the darkest Abed, makes the most sense.

I would mention the DT stuff in season 4 but that was most likely Abed experiencing Reverie Syndrome because of the gas leak, so I'm discounting it.