IMO He has always been wildly out of touch with reality. He routinely makes claims that other prominent/trusted people in the community don't agree with, his ventures always fail spectacularly, and so he ends up just, talking... a lot, about nonsense.

Since the 90s people have been oddly hailing him as the "father of VR" even though all he did in that space (besides a lot of talking) was a failed business after leaving Atari, making eye-wateringly expensive, funny-looking VR goggles that didn't work.