Your response is also a common trope. What has Elon actually invented? What code did Elon write on-par with Carmack?
We can judge him by technical merits very easily. But if you hold him to the standards of Carmack or Feynman, Elon's accomplishments are entirely benign.
The query in question is "Elon little real technical understanding", which is demonstrably false. Responding to that with the logical fallacy of Moving the Goalposts does not address it.
Wait, "demonstrably false" based on anecdotes? I'm sorry, when I wonder whether someone like, say, Carmack has technical chops I wouldn't rely on anecdotes from people, especially people I do not know of.
For one, I can counter those with anecdotes from people I do know and trust. Like, I know directly from at least one very senior ex-Twitter engineer, who I worked directly with and whose technical chops I can vouch for (and who left before Elon took over, so you know, less chances of prejudice) that everything Elon said about Twitter engineering after he took over was absolute BS.
For another, I can point to boneheaded moves directly traceable to Elon, like eschewing LIDAR for Tesla FSD, that have endangered my own life on multiple occasions. Like, phantom braking is STILL a problem for in 2026, something that LIDAR would largely eliminate.
Just because he's built some very successful technical businesses does not mean he's technically strong. It is useful to know that cults of personality are cultivated. And especially for one like Elon (cf video game cheating scandal) when in doubt, it is probably a good idea to err towards "cultivated."
What I think is funny is that Steve Jobs also had very little technical knowledge and was just as much of an asshole, yet he's worshipped in the tech community. The only reason comments like yours are being made is because of Musk's politics. He was also loved in the Tech community, before supporting Trump.
Musk doesn't have to be a 'real engineer'. Most 'real engineers' would obsess over mundane details and rarely think about the bigger picture or making a profit.
Maybe for those who are younger and who mostly know of Jobs posthumously but Jobs was a highly polarising figure through the 80s, 90s and 2000s and there were many ppl who would never buy any Apple product because of the Jobs personality behind it (including when Jobs wasn't actually in charge; it was still a company built in his "Walled Garden + Salesman Hype" image)
This is a common trope, it's been dismantled many times previously https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33555870