He seems to have lived his life on his own terms. That alone deserves respect.
Too bad he gave up on reality and started drinking the Kool-Aid. Happens to a lot of successful people, they think that just because they are successful at one thing they are experts in everything.
There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means "
my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."
Isaac Asimov (1980)