As for a scammer being an asset to the community, maybe, I mean, Bruce Wagner engaged the community with his bitcoin show and meetups and could have been thought of as an asset in that way. However when his history was exposed his entire credibility went down the drain and he hasn't been doing any since then. I think at least Bruce Wagner has served his time right, he might deserve a second chance
Bruce Wagner's recently started using his reputation and SEO-foo to start scamming people who're trying to buy Bitcoins, from what I've read elsewhere in the forums. So no.