Having been in and around conversations with Maltiez frequently, I would describe him as relatively emotionless, admittedly having zero sense of humor, and always straight to the point (which was often borderline offensive, especially to those who were unfamiliar with his personality). Add to this his acknowledgement of using ai at times to work though some difficult hurdles. So yeah, he rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.
I'd be curious to see a venn diagram of the Maltiez is a jerk crowd, the anti-AI crowd, and the fire Maltiez crowd.