The status you gained with your fans doesn’t transfer well if you change who/what you are. They liked you for one thing but won’t automatically like you for something else. Status can be pretty specific and non-transferable. You can’t just gain status with a group then say/do stuff that challenges that group – then you’re acting like the out-group (and, worse, a traitor – someone who left the in-group for the out-group instead of being born and raised into the out-group).
Similarly, if a physicist comes up with weird ideas about polyamory, their status as a smart physics person will not get many people to listen. People will just say they’re good at one thing but bad at something else. Specialization is common. Even smart people have weaknesses and can be cranks or conspiracy theorists about something else.
There is a physicist called Brian Josephson who made some discoveries about semiconductors and won a Nobel Prize as a result. He claims that psychic powers are real and have something to do with quantum physics:
Scientists haven’t accepted these claims, so Josephson’s knowledge of semiconductors didn’t result in acceptance of his cranky endorsement of psychic powers.