I'm somewhat horrified by the constant struggles Musk's companies have with ethics.
Why is there a cult following when fraud and employee abuse is common?
Why is there a cult following when fraud and employee abuse is common?
All in all, Musk's companies have an above-average incidence of ethics- and truth-related issues.
Musk can present an image of a successful multiple entrepreneur who is working towards a vision that many support arrayed against a forces of Big Bad Incumbents who would rather squash him than compete fairly. Thus he is responsible for all the good things, and the bad things are just smear campaigns that should be ignored.
Essentially, it's the same force that fuels the rise of people like Trump, just applied to a different part of the political spectrum.
From cameos in movies and tv shows to projects like SpaceX that were created solely to boost his "genius" image, Musk (or his publicists) have done everything to make him seem like a superhuman.