Nah, I think Musk is an actor, honestly. There's something off about the whole good-guy charade. And as your example perfectly exemplifies, I think he's a case of talking the talk without walking the walk in many instances.
At the end of the day, the overwhelming majority of people won't bother to run this kind of experiment. They'll see a headline (leaning whichever way the paper's owners want it to lean) and form their opinion of Musk based on that.
He just flows too smoothly to be the actual good guy, I feel.

anyhow, it's good to see you around, dear friend <3 It really is. And I hope your friend is in a better place. Then again, with the way the world's going right now, that wouldn't be too hard.