Like a celebrity politician, installing a CEO who has achieved celebrity infamy or fame adds hype to whatever they touch, orthogonal to if they deserve celebrity or not. But also, how many other serious EV companies were there in 2006? Basically none. So said engineers and celebrity guy got to define a category for a while. But then he jumped the shark with a double "Roman" Nazi salute and customers fled to the myriad of other competitors that since developed and arguably surpassed (like BYD super fast charging, that one can't buy in America).
> how many other serious EV companies were there in 2006? Basically none
Yeah, thats my point. I'm reasonably confident that without Musk, the answer would still be none (or at least the transformation would have been way slower).
I'm not a fan of Musk, but this notion that he's never done anything worthwhile is also clearly wrong.
Except you're making the error of erroneously conflating invention with marketing trickery. He's only done the latter, ever. He's never made anything of value himself.