If this attitude was in place for the last 500 years we would all be in rowing boats.
Did Percy Pilcher and the Wright Brothers know about the Boeing 747 when they pushed off into the ether supported by stick and string? Of course not. It was real wing and a prayer with no real end target other than striving to achieve. And, heaven forbid, they self promoted and so we know about them.
This whole project may fall flat on its face but its private money and he is willing to give it a spin. OK so he maybe self promoting, he may be delusional [but I doubt it] but at least he is doing what he apparently believes in for the public good. The USA airborne emergency services is riddled with such people and in many States the locals only get their police and fire air support from such 'gifts' of time and effort - perhaps he thinks he is a Yank?
There are fire helicopters across the world and they all do different jobs, some do it better than others and perhaps a 500 is way down the food chain but some are in use and there are no signs that they are withdrawing them because some Ppruners think they are rubbish......
The wider industry has seen fit to pump lots of money into the concept of a UK fire helicopter over 20 years so they think there is a prize out there waiting to be plucked some day. The main problems have been a lack of visionary senior fire officers, spare cash and, mainly the pressure of the fire unions to say no to each and every project so far.
There are plenty of instances in police aviation where delusional, self promoting, people led to the creation of less than viable air units that grew into something worthwhile and elsewhere on Pprune there is a big argument about how NPAS is wrecking that very model.
So what wrong has this man actually done?