[dotnet00]

This argument is not convincing, considering that there were other private space companies, some with far more funding and far more support from NASA at their inception (eg Kistler Aerospace) which never got anywhere. That's why the joke when Musk expressed his desire to get into aerospace was "how do you become a millionaire in aerospace? Start as a billionaire".

Musk had, at the very least, the ability to pick good talent, enough commitment to try for one last launch even after burning through most of his fortune with no results and the ability to establish good culture for an R&D focused company. This is relatively well documented in books about the early days of SpaceX.

Theoretically someone else could have made the exact same decisions as him, but by that same logic Einstein should not be praised for his contributions to science because someone else could've theoretically had the same realizations.