Mitnick wasn't all that good, he got busted after all
I've read rumours about him, hanging out on IRC asking people to compile his code for him because he couldn't do it
Besides, he didn't make money out of it, only damage. Hackers are not cool, really. There are thousands of 14 year old kids on irc taking down hosts and irc servers just for the hell of it. Then there are 14 year olds who hack websites for fun. It isn't all that hard, my mother could do it.