As for him taking cutting edge technologies that already existed and just furthering their evolution.... well, yeah. He is not reinventing the wheel, but his versions of the wheel kick major ass and in fairness SpaceX and Tesla have done some amazing things that have not been done before. Standing on the shoulders of his predecessors? Of course he is.if Elon Musk were Howard Hughes and Hyperloop was the Spruce Goose, this would be the equivalent of a rich recluse saying he was going to make a nuclear-powered flying boat out of leather and whalebone that would carry divisions of troops to Europe via orbital transection.
This is what I think is the biggest misunderstanding. He's not building anything. He's made that abundantly clear. He has zero intention of building the Hyperloop or any incarnation thereof. He's prompting a conversation, greasing the wheels of thought for a potential alternative to HSR. Good, let's see what does or does not come of it.