On the other hand, by dint of being so loud, they've given even the quiet hackers some well-deserved recognition. Intellectualism has too long been shunned in the main stream. It's finally become sort of (dare I say it?) cool to be a hacker.
Thus, their volume has contributed some social capital to us.
In my experience, hackers have always been the quiet type. Now some loud ones have changed what it means to be a hacker through popularity.