Well in one of the most competitive and fast moving fields right now they have one of the best models available. They've earned the right to be taken seriously.
You may not care for the owner but the company's tech speaks for itself and the company deserves to be taken seriously based on their production alone.
A model companies and people actively avoid outside of Twitter. Nobody is choosing Grok unless they want to make spicy/racist meme or show an active support for Elon.
Gemini, Claude, and ChatGPT are run by serious businesses that aren't blatantly meddling with the models to boost racism, misinformation, and the owners ego. It's why they are discussed together and Grok is always left out except by Elon fans.
It will never actually matter how SOTA Grok gets (if it ever gets there) when it's output is being guided in that way.
You may not care for the owner but the company's tech speaks for itself and the company deserves to be taken seriously based on their production alone.