I think maybe because people on the SDMB tend to be intelligent, liberal, and (based on this thread) don’t really make a lot of money they tend to have a blind spot when it comes to what businesspeople actually do and what actually makes someone a “successful” business person. And I think they generally find those people distasteful, Elon Musk in particular.
Maybe Elon Musk got lucky or maybe the stars aligned just right for him. But he started two companies SpaceX and Tesla for a $100M each from money he made in previous ventures. Those two companies are now worth a combined $900 billion dollars. Is that not indicative of some competency in running a business?
So what if he Elon didn’t invent the rocket ship or the electric car or he’s not in his home lab like Tony Stark personally cranking out new designs for Cybertrucks and Starship rockets? The reason “but he’s rich” is because of the companies he runs.
And as you say, Elon Musk sees problems and tries to solve them. And he has enough money that he can afford to pursue ventures that may not necessarily be profitable or within his particular wheelhouse.
Now as I understand it, The Boring Company mostly makes money from the design and sales of advanced Tunnel Boring Machines. The Hyperloop stuff is mostly speculative hype or proofs of concept and not the core business. But fine. Elon is interested in drilling big holes.
Twitter / X is another matter that seems to not play to Elon Musk’s strengths. I think you can be a bit of a mad scientist if the only thing that matters is if people like driving your cars or your rockets work. Something that’s very public facing like Twitter becomes more problematic if advertisers don’t want to be associated with the CEO’s particular brand of lunacy.