I think it's all of those things; and, maybe I'm just loonier than the rest of you, but I also see a purity (albeit misguided) in his actions that is in short supply in our modern world. Did you all watch the commentary with his friends? There seemed to be more perspective there than perhaps evident in Herzog's viewpoint? And if you can judge a man by his friends, he couldn't have been as much of a complete flake as the movie suggests.