I worked closely with Eli over several months over a decade ago. We talked about this subject multiple times. I think this article does a good job of portraying the feelings on the topic he expressed to me one-on-one.
Eli doesn't bring this attention to himself. He doesn't call up Desert News and ask them to write an article on him. If anything your annoyance should be with those who write about it, and not Eli. Personally, I don't mind that it is written about, I think it is an uncommon story and one that most people are interested in.