It's classic circular reasoning.

"He's so rich because he's hard working and smart."

"How do you know he's so hard working?"

"Because lazy and dumb people don't get rich, duh."

To many, rich parents, dumb luck, lack or morals and a huge pile of debt don't play a role.

Nah, that's not how it works. People believe it because they can pay people to repeat their lies, and their success buys them a seat in main-stream media interviews where they can broadcast their bullshit to millions of people. And in Musk's case, he can just buy a social media company and force it to boost his excreta.

he has lots of money therefore he is smart

Not smart, cunning. The peole who worship billionaires do not respect intelligence.