I have not made a comment about him being a bad mathematician or academic, nor about what he contributed to mathematics. He is a tenured professor at UCLA, and won a Fields Medal. I am sure that in academic venues he is very well known, and I am not going to refute your story that math students are asking for his autograph after giving a lecture. The thing is, the level of public attention he is getting now isn't at the same level as for being a great mathematician. The only other event in his life when he got this level of non-academic coverage was when he was a child prodigy, which is my point.