Roberts is relatively well-known in and out of the Star Citizen community for being a perfectionist at the best times.
In a parallel universe, Roberts would have been allowed to continue working on Freelancer, and it would still be in development hell in 2024 with no end in sight.
On the other hand, Starlancer is a perfectly contained game with great singleplayer gameplay, story, coop and a lot of attention to detail that shines and rewards good players for playing the game. So he can do stuff well, the correct environment needs to be there for it to happen though.