LogFAQs > #947243744

It's probably because his followers have started to treat him as an authority on science. In the end Musk is a business executive that believes in advancing tech that should benefit humanity without immediate profit motivation. And he has the skills to excite the general public and investors alike (which is extremely valuable btw, don't think I'm trying to undermine his importance here).

But what you're seeing is probably that many people simply didn't care about him until he pissed them off. Or he got too influential for them to simply ignore. I also think actual scientists don't like how much credit he seems to get in the public sphere. But people who were positive about him before still probably going to see his value to society.