I'm totally with you, but what's the other guys story going to be?
"This weird researcher wouldn't follow orders, and I didn't dig deeper to understand his level of commitment or anything. If I had, I would've at least seen his level of dedication and possibly rallied to support him."
That's the best possible version, and highly unlikely since, as you noted, narcissism.
Anytime I see someone intelligently committed to a cause the way Nakamura was, I respect it and will support them however I can. Even if it doesn't pan out, it's still a good story.
The late founder had supported the direction of the research. It's just that the new CEO does not have the same level of risk taking vision, and instead listened to prevailing experts on the direction. He had assumed that this lone researcher is just following a dead end.
Childish behaviour aside, the conservative decision to cut costs and shut down the research is justifiable to some degree. The only problem is that the GAN research path is well trodden by others already, and therefore, a smart CEO should see that it is also a dead end.
"This weird researcher wouldn't follow orders, and I didn't dig deeper to understand his level of commitment or anything. If I had, I would've at least seen his level of dedication and possibly rallied to support him."
That's the best possible version, and highly unlikely since, as you noted, narcissism.
Anytime I see someone intelligently committed to a cause the way Nakamura was, I respect it and will support them however I can. Even if it doesn't pan out, it's still a good story.