Sun Microsystems co-founder, worth $2.1B.

That seems like a heavy interpretation of the situation. This guy bought a property that included these features and had always been treated as private with discretion for access and services provided. When told he does not actually own what he thought he bought it makes sense to have the courts make a final decision. It is a weird fluke that the extremely strong protection of coastal access in California has taken this long to resolve.

It is kind of odd that people continually frame this as a problem with an individual instead of a legal clarification of land use rights. The conflicts over access and who pays for services and liabilities such as trash accumulating have always been there but were allowed to fester as long as people sort of worked things out. Realistically that situation was never stable and was always heading for some kind of forced legal resolution no matter who was owning and who was surfing. Was public access allowed or not? In the past mostly locals would have known about the spot in the first place and anyone having problems with access would have walked away and maybe tried again later. The longstanding tension does not represent full fair access.

The wealthier you get, the less used to "no" you get.

got lucky in the right time in Silicon Valley. Nothing super smart or visionary.

Once he got money - he revealed his true self