It's like being unable to accept that Mr. Ponzi was kind of a con man too. That sort of denial comes with being part of the cult. We know better than that. He is a perfect fit with the rest of the Bitcoin elite. And he was a bona fide Cypherpunk in the old days. He deserves some respect for that. He also realized right from the beginning that his persona would get in the way of Bitcoin. That's why he came up with his alter ego. Now, you could argue that's exactly what any con man would do! But it also shows that he wasn't as vain as it seems and had a level of humbleness about himself. Again, any con man would do the same, but look at it this way: it's like Donald Trump deliberately running for president as a Republican so that the Democrats would win.