To give an indirect answer to your question… For many years I saw mainstream media and tech authors romanticizing Musk but nothing he did actually made an impression on me as positive or negative. It felt like people wanted a hero, a modern day Steve Jobs, and they decided that Musk was their man. They didn’t seem to care whether their worship was justified, for years, even when the bad news started rolling in.

That’s my somewhat distant perspective. No doubt people who were paying closer attention have a different take on the issue.