Exactly, it's the Lex Fridman gambit: a reputation for asking safe questions to powerful people tends to snowball because "safe, popular interview platform" is something they are all looking to self-promote on.

If you want to see the mask slip, watch Lex's interview with Zelensky.

Friedman's Zelensky interview was terrible but I think that has more to do with him being a russian nationalist than a bad podcast host