I would say that’s a very romanticised view of what he did. He never debated in good faith, there was never an openness to consider differing viewpoints, only pushing his own agenda (rooted in disinformation), mostly on people who were not equipped to “debate” with him.
Plus the whole “debate me” schtick seems to be just the window dressing on what his Turning Point organisation was actually doing. Lots of prominent people in academia and journalism coming out saying they were targeted with harassment campaigns designed to silence them.
Not saying that excuses what happened to him but he wasn’t just some politically-curious young man with a passion for debate. He was an activist for an agenda that will result in human death and suffering whether it be removal of healthcare, removal of access to safe abortion, consequences of false demonisation of vaccines, rhetoric on acceptability of gun deaths, and the general approach to diversity and immigration that will have lasting effects on millions of hard-working families.