actually, it was Macready. Helios is a descendent of the Gosamer Albatross and Gosamer Condor aircraft. Burt Rutan designs no less unconventional but generally more robust aircraft. Macready has always pushed ultra light to the extreme. His early work driving towards human powered flight required that. Rutan has always optimized his materials, using new, lighter, but also much stronger materials. Th name of his company, Scaled Composites, carries with it his emphasis on materials science.
Burt Rutan tends to rub a lot of old timers and tail draggers the wrong way. His aircraft designs question the conventions of aircraft design, such as symetry, in ways that they haven't been by many. Jack Northrop was another of these engineers, but he didn't have the computers or materials to make some of his dreams work as envisioned. The B2 has proven his detractors wrong. Voyager, among other craft, has proved Rutans critics wrong.
It's not arrogance if you're right and your critics are wrong.