Musk played into the hero narrative for years, endeavoring to make people believe he was the literal savior of humanity. He's spent years encouraging people to have extreme characterizations of him. Neither a great hero nor a great villain is a nuanced character, and therefore one can easily become another when the context changes.

He may or may not have done this, the responsibility to fall for hero worship still lies with yourself.

He certainly did it, every time he said that SpaceX's purpose was literally, not figuratively, to save humanity. He was positioning himself and Tesla in the same sort of way; 'buy my EV to save the planet.'

In any case, I have no hero worship to apologize for. Not with regard to Musk anyway.

Blame is often less useful than people think. Is it the audience's fault for falling for it? Or is it Musk's fault for encouraging it? I'm not sure that it really matters. The lesson should be clear, though. CEOs can't save the world, and people who have been successful previously may still be foolish in the future.