The question really is did the preceding theories help when Snowden came out? Like you said, some didn't believe him, but he brought his reputation and experie

The question really is did the preceding theories help when Snowden came out? Like you said, some didn't believe him, but he brought his reputation and experience and evidence to eventually convince people. I'm not convinced that the decades of conspiracy theories in any way helped the process, and in fact may have invalidated his claims in the eyes of some.