You’re right.
He was a great fake. He was a great liar. He was great at pretending to be something he wasn’t in exchange for money.
Wait...what part of that is admirable, again?
There’s a reason why actors used to be held in contempt. It is because they lie/pretend/play dressup for a living...all favorite activities of 6 year old children everywhere.
Well, by your (narrow) standards I myself should be held in contempt since I made a career out of singing and playing really crappy songs in casinos for money. Were they good songs? Some were, some weren’t. But because I did my job well, know one ever knew what I thought. What I thought was not my job. My job was to perform your favorite song and leave you thinking I liked it, even if I didn’t.
I’ve often pondered the duplicity of the job, but that didn’t stop me: the pay was great and none of it really mattered after all, did it? You still wouldn’t know which song was my favorite and which one I loathed. That was my job.