Feel free to document this amazing assertion.
and ended up a democratic humanist
Not really, but if that's the only way you can cram him into a narrow, stereotypical mental pigeonhole of your choosing, I hope you find some comfort in it.
who liked the idea of philosopher kings, thought society could be organized and guided from above and the future predicted and controlled (somewhat).
And you got this from *what*, the fact that *one* of his science fiction works (the Foundation trilogy) contains such characters and events? None of his personal essays or non-fiction works supports your assertion that he subscribed to such beliefs himself.
You remind me of the parable of the blind men attempting to describe the elephant...
QED. The signature of humanistic elitists is they always attract groupies who see intelligence as a good in itself and who become emotionally upset and engage in vicious personal attacks when someone points out that their idol is average at best.
Personally I find two tragic events in his writing career. First is the use of word processors, which resulted in his novels bloating from the God-given 200 pages to 600+ pages. Nothing much good ever comes from word count inflation.
The second tragic event in his writing career was his second marriage to a Freudian therapist. His themes turned from innocent fun to wooden sexuality (more or less literally).