>I'm not so sure about it. Did you listen to the interview of Lex Fridman with Brett Johnson?

I did. Excellent, captivating interview, but he repeatedly acknowledged he didn't know much about the tech stuff, and he said several incorrect technical things towards the end. I stand by my statement: I think it would've been difficult for him to get a (technical) infosec job at the time of his arrest, or now (assuming a world where he didn't have a criminal record). While listening to it, I actually thought he perfectly fit the archetype of cybercrime forum operators I'm used to coming across.

He's certainly a great social engineer, and many other technically unskilled people in the cybercrime space also are. I'm definitely not discounting that ability. A lot of it comes down to brazenness; e.g. being confident and shameless enough to impersonate a law enforcement officer over the phone. There's still a lot of skill involved in being a con artist even then - you need affability and the gift of gab and all that - but it's not necessarily the kind of skill that's transferrable to technical expertise. There are many people with expertise in both areas, but also many who are exclusive to one.