I watched the debate between Booth and Dixon as well and it truly was “idealism” vs “cynicism”. I’m not using “cynicism” to disparage Dixon’s views but to point out that he views things in a pragmatic way by “following the money”, no matter how bad a path it leads you.
Booth did manage to pump son optimism in to Dixon though, over all good debate.

That does seem to be the case. I found it funny that Jeff called out Gloria for not understanding his thesis but missed the flip side of that, he doesn't seem to understand the technicals.
Im not even remotely an expert on bitcoin code, but my CS background and all the posts @Murch has made here, as well as others on X like Adam Back and core devs, has made me somewhat confident that bip110 doesn't successfully do what it sets out to do. I haven't seen good arguments from the knots side as to how their side solves the spam problem, in fact they seem think it doesn't either, but trying is what counts. Which pretty much sums up idealists.

He does come across that way. On the other hand, I went to an investor forum at Ego Death Capital where he gave a presentation. What I saw was a polished, skilled fundraiser. He left no doubt that he was a savvy, wealthy entrepreneur. The offices weren't that of a starry eyed crypto anarchist either. That's why I have trouble pigeon holing him.