That is what they want you to think it isn't too big to fail there are plenty of competitors with much stronger engineers and principles than this grifter.
You are correct about the issues of navigating the DoD but that isn't a reason to accept these assholes the process needs to be open to normal companies and promote standards without any grifter connections.
You can play around with words as much as you can, but Musk even with a very high rate of failure seems to be making a lot of things work.