This was a long time ago. RTM was called a "hacker" in the headline of a 1988 article [0] about his potential links to the worm that now bears his name. Since the word isn't used in the text of the article, we can't know it was considered a bad thing. Still, the headline seems to speak for itself.

[0] https://www.computerworld.com/article/2531758/portrait-of-an...