That’s pretty much how he kept the public image of “eccentric genius” for so many years. I once read an article (can’t remember where, don’t care enough to search) that said that SpaceX had/has a team whose entire purpose was to babysit Musk when he had a temper tantrum. The team formed organically, like a cyst around a foreign object, and minimized damage to PR.

When Twitter was infested, it didn’t have this immunity and now the world (or those of us who care) knows how much of a shithead he is.