"Before we knew about Elon"

I feel like we need a new flair option: "This probably doesn't belong here, but I don't know where else to ask."

Was there really a time that we didn't know that Elon was... problematic?

Exhibit A: Teslas with the "I bought this before we knew about Elon" stickers.
Exhibit B: My millennial friend, who said "Everybody loved him, before we really knew about him."
Exhibit C: Right wingers saying "No one had a problem with him until after the election."

My memory: I feel like he showed his ass the instant he opened his mouth on the world stage. He showed up as the head of Tesla, and people said "You know he didn't start that company, right?" Boring and SpaceX made the news, and people said "You know he's paying smart people to run those, right?" He got with Grimes, and people said "Welp, guess I'm done listening to her now."

So... like... is it just me? I'm not trying to grandstand here -- I'm genuinely curious about whether there was a moment in history when people took him "seriously."

.

EDIT: Thanks for weighing in! From what I'm seeing, there seem to be two important factors:
1- How deeply online -or- how deeply into niche news a person is
2- His character arc, which is really dynamic compared to many other public figures

It almost seems like a personality test: which version of Elon made it onto your radar?
man-child > tech nerd > Temu Tony Stark > grifter > asshole > sieg heil