You should prioritize yourself. If you’re recognized for your hard work, then all the power to you. People are just skeptic because most of the time, no matter how hard you work, you never get any valuable recognition for it.
If you don’t feel recognized, it’s still valid to do work that you believe will contribute to your professional growth - as a way to prepare yourself for the next step.
He is a huge mysoginist and transphobe. There was an FFF long time ago, where he defended the infamous Uncle Bob, and when people pointed out in the reddit thread that he is a problematic figure, kovarex came out defending him and insulting so many people in the subreddit that he got his messages removed by moderation. Was a huge clustefuck.