Can you blame them? Just today it came out Musk was funding an organization that had set up fake voter registration websites in swing states to collect voter data. In EVs there are many options to avoid Musk and his products. In Space there is nothing.
Wonder if it would be possible to create a new space entity: you take half the funds given to Boeing's program, stand up new company and poach SpaceX employees with extremely aggressive offers. He has nothing without his employees's sacrifices. Its amazing that he manages to retain such great talent while continually treating them like crap(from everyone I spoke to and read about it is true).
Regardless of what you think about him, he’s good at something. It’s not grifting; there are plenty of people good at that who couldn’t possibly hit this level of success.
As a part-time CEO, he probably deserves part-time credit.
(I am 100% a SpaceX fan, personally. Whatever it is that has made it work.)
*buy pre-existing companies
Tesla was four guys with the brand name and nothing else when Musk came along six months after founding. Given that Musk was the first large outside investor and invested in/joined the company four years before Roadster (which he heavily participated in designing) deliveries began, I don't think it's unreasonable to call him a founder even aside from such being legal fact.