I think people are less concerned about his research, and more about the media machine around his research. It comes off as if he’s puffing up a lot of smoke, in lieu of a flame.

To make a comparison that a lot of people use to justify fringe research, Einstein came up with general relativity mostly by himself, and it was a fringe concept, but it came with a set of predictions that could be verified with observation. Eventually those predictions were tested, and his idea “won”.

Until Wolfram’s ideas come bundled with refutable predictions that deviate from the standard model, it’s a smoke without a fire.

To restate the comparison, Einstein wasn’t writing pamphlets, going on speaking tours, or writing books about his “universal laws” for years before actually presenting the idea in a refutable form.

Einstein waited until he saw flames, to raise the smoke alarm, I’d that makes sense. Wolfram has been raising the smoke alarm for a while, but not providing any images of the fire.

It’s not a very good look, IMO, but reasonable people can disagree.