It feels like all of that toxicity was unnecessary and he could have been impactful and transformational without it, but maybe I'm wrong.
Musk was divorced like 5 times already.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackmccullough/2019/12/09/the-p...
Quacks like a duck for me.
Why rob banks for $10k when you can whip up fervor on social media for millions?
Criminal activity is there, basically, cuz people want to get what they want, norms, morals, and the well-being of others be damned. Musk doesn't have to rob banks to get what he wants, and probably never would have since his family owned gemstone mines in S Africa.
If you want to judge the man, see how he treated his ex's, his children, etc. That paints a far less flattering picture.
I think what gave him some cover is that for a long time nobody else was able to do what his companies could do at the same scale, or even close to it. Maybe Blue Origin is not equal to SpaceX yet, but putting Captain Kirk into orbit was a good PR coup. And the legacy car companies are not as experienced as Tesla as making electric cars, but they have been manufacturing cars for a century. US automakers were hurt by Asian carmakers a few decades ago, but survived. It might take a few more years, but I think they will figure out how to survive this transition.
His companies were close to monopolies in their niches for a long time, so he kind of walked on water. Now other companies are catching up, and he is not as special.