I'm nearly certain Tesla does Astroturfing, which is why I saw 'Tesla quietly provides solar to disaster country' front page of reddit first post, years ago.
Then I think the rest of the automakers realized that they could promote anti-tesla similarly. Have some company write a negative article, upvote farm bomb.
Copypaste for every industry. Its creepy.
Sure he said few bad things over the years, but overall it's positive.
And don't forget he's got a spectrum diagnosis, on antidepressants, works crazy hours, got beaten to death by black gangs and had terrible childhood by abusive father. Most people like him would end up as a recidivist.
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1788441056905707613?t=_v...
None of the things you mention are valid excuses. This is why PR firms exist. He has chosen, in his hubris, to ignore them.
When someone buys the world's largest communication platform and then uses it to spread hate speech, conspiracy theories, and misinformation - that is absolutely worth criticism.