He was a wife-beating drug addict; not exactly a great role model. …

Yes true he was not a great role model, But he was i feel he was quiet rightly a hero to people for what he did stunt wise and not for what he may have been in real life, Essentially Evel Knievel almost like the heroes we would read about in comics etc just in the real world, He knew well how to market himself and very much knew that people engaged with him as the maverick hero, Who would do the things most of us would be too scared to do.

So yes maybe he was not all sweetness and delight but concidering the fact we just have talentless reality show people these days for kids to look up to, We were probably better off with Evel in our day.