As an engineer, I cannot avoid feeling gratitude when seeing smart solutions being created. And Elon Musk is the master of smart solutions: his motto "Prototypes are Easy, Manufacturing is Hard" is not a statement of despair, but a tribute to his ceaseless efforts to solve challenges via first principles thinking.
And so yes, I do admire the guy, if not for that then for his remaining down-to-earth even though his head and heart are sometimes on Mars...