I'm not sure what the author's intention was but to me this comes across as 'damning with faint praise'.
Seemed to me like a nice write up with a bunch of anecdotes, I got the sense that Bob was curious, friendly, smart, maybe hopped around from idea to idea(reminds me of me!), and generally lived a good life, made some things(the YouTube video seemed interesting).
Yeah, frankly the guy seemed like a real cad. I've always recognized the name as someone who was "around" the tech world, but never was clear to me he did or said anything interesting. This does not dispel that impression.
Reads as nice memories of a memorable character who was a part of the evolution of our industry. I enjoyed it.