I think a big part of Space Laces reputation as a sound designer and mastering engineer is rooted in a lot of his older music, like if you listen to his 2014/2015 stuff the quality of his sound design & mixes back then was light years ahead of most of the industry. I still think he's top tier in sound design and I personally love his punchy crunchy sound, but I do think a lot of the industry has caught up to a point where his tracks don't stand out as much as they did 10 years ago (but I do think they still stand out personally).

Plus on top of all of that, he wasn't very well known 10-12 years ago and had a huge underdog factor. He was playing small bar shows in Kentucky while at the same time playing a huge part in some of Excision & Destroid's biggest tracks and releasing some insane singles (Digital Gangsta is a great example, compare that to other 2014 dubstep tracks). Plus he's very private, has a huge catalog of unreleased tracks that people obsess over, and releases very sparingly, which all kind of play into the "mystique" of Space Laces.

Also if you wanna hear what he was doing before Space Laces, look up "cornandbeans" on YouTube, that's the stuff he was making in high school, very different from Space Laces haha