I don't see the appeal to "nerdy" types (as a nerd myself) - he is less tech-oriented than founders of deep technology companies. Think of the people who started Google, VMware, even Facebook, and many others - great engineers who built things themselves. What did Thiel ever build? He's a lawyer, not an engineer.

Actually he's exclusively self-serving, solipsistic. He's an Ayn Rand libertarian (which in fact is a contradiction). If he were not self-serving, he'd be a liberal (which he isn't).