Maybe I'm missing something about the MalwareTech story, but I don't think it's surprising people celebrate him. When I read some large feature on him (I'm sorry, I don't remember where) my impression was that he had royally screwed up as a young person, but that he was trying to turn his life around and did a serious good deed for the internet as a whole with his contribution to the wannacry thing. Many people make mistakes at any phase of life, and it's not surprising to me that people might celebrate people who try to move past that and do good.

edit: I believe [0] was the feature I read.

[0]: https://www.wired.com/story/confessions-marcus-hutchins-hack...