Putting aside that these "unethical fools" would have to be at least really good grifters, politicians, and other synonyms...to make the analogy more accurate I'd wager these alleged charlatans didn't serially found multiple research institutes, run them concurrently in some cases, that are producing ground-breaking real-world results some of which their contemporaries said was essentially impossible (e.g. landing an orbital booster). Elon is either a genius in some manner, be it the greatest grifter in history or something, or Zeus is rigging the wheel of fortune in his favor for some reason. I'm not a big fan of the Zeus theory.