DJB wasn't exactly wrong about TLS, it's been an unending source of security holes for a while now and everybody that's looking at the code expects more. Most of his work is actually dealing with encryption and pointing out flaws in implementations like DNSSEC (which provide no security to the end client).
There's also the licensing, preventing distros from using their own directory layouts. djb says they're being ridiculous and his folder layout is superior (and it is). But it seems to have the opposite effect if it just means packagers decide to simply drop the software :(
This ended up causing a lot of people to use other servers which _did_ respond to user demands.
So maybe other than only learning from the way he writes code, we can also get some ideas on how to nurture open source projects.