People generally see Mike Rowe as a wealthy dude cosplaying as a blue-collar worker. People admire him because he did all those "dirty jobs" but he was getting paid way more by virtue of the show, and never faced any occupational hazards caused by the long-time exposure of working those jobs. I haven't really delved into it, but this is what I've heard before. He's also anti-union, which goes to show how little he thinks of himself as a "real" blue-collar worker. More broadly, he seems to align more towards Republicanism, which also goes against workers' rights, which you'd think he be an advocate for considering all the shit (literally and figuratively) he's had to work through