The hype surrounding him is completely disproportionate to the list of actual accomplishments he has under his belt. "The man who slightly refined rocketry, bought an EV company and built a regular car tunnel" doesn't have the same ring to it as "The man who is taking us to mars to build a space colony, and we are going to fly their using only our minds, with an AI super intelligence".

His popularity is purely based on things he claims we will do in the future, none of which are realistic and none of which will ever come into fruition. Frauds like Elon can only ever prosper in fiat monetary systems in which all valuations are subjective, without the backing of millions in government money fresh from the printer this snake oil sales man would be nothing.