> Stephenson’s worlds are not populated predominantly by Heinleinian larger-than-life characters than can do anything …

Funnily enough I have in Stephenson’s more recent books the contrary impression. The last near future books read more like a love letter to billionaires, all that seems missing is the long flowery dedication to patrons like authors did it in the 1700s. Maybe twenty years ago I was to young or blind to register it but modern Stephenson has just with this trope put himself from my must-read into the meh/maybe category.

(Contrapoint: I can see a structural need for billionaires in his storytelling: He needs a source of financing for the fictional projects. But somehow Stephenson seems to be to unimaginative as to consider other means of realization than the magic billionaire.)