It has always been despite him. There are some brilliant people at SpaceX which made eveything from Falcon Heavy to Starlink to Dragon possible.

They needed to keep Musk distracted so he didn't interfere with operations too much.

SpaceX is successfull because they not only have competent engineers but are also good at managing Musk by distracting him and steering him away from critical stuff (or personal he might randomly fire).

I think you know the answer to that. Despite. It's despite his egregious meddling.

SpaceX is successful because of Gwen Shotwell the CEO (fantastic name by the way).

But also because they're not "old areospace". They are able to move quickly and be dynamic and change focus quickly.

Meanwhile Boeing is still trying to get Starliner of to work, despite the fact that it's clearly a dud and they should abandon it.