Exactly that. I have a lot of respect for his work, but as a public speaker – he’s a disaster. I remember watching some of his presentations and interviews and I had multiple problems with his arguments, even as a someone who agreed with his position.
For example, when speaking in a program intended for general public, he uses language and concepts understood only for people familiar with free software movement. There’s no way an average person would even get what he was talking about.
And even once we skip the language barrier, his arguments weren’t good either. He just repeats his dogmas (which I did agree with) without giving any explanation or countering the points of his discussants.
Not to mention all of his talks are very ideological and rarely touch on the practicality or possibility and means of actual change.
To top all of this, when being interviewed about free software, the journalist passively mentioned God, RMS stopped to tell him that God isn’t real – like, maybe not the best moment for that, Richard.