He was much less vocal in the past, back when SpaceX and Tesla were getting big. He barely HAD any amount of public persona, so people just associated him with the cool tech that the companies were doing. That was also before he started taking direct control over technical decisions, so the tech they were outti g out was actually pretty cool.

Something around… like 8 years ago?.. made him lose his good sense for keeping his mouth shut. Obvious bet would be the ketamine.