Knowing the eccentricities of the man and the random effects of his actions make the story that much more interesting.
In authoritarianism, government would have dug up his trees and confiscated his seeds, saying the fruit didn’t meet standards, and the cider has not passed standard tests, too much alcohol or too little or some such.
He would have been fined, arrested if he kept doing it, or perhaps put to forced labor on a farm somewhere. Anonymous, failed, miserable.
It was his freedom that made his story work. The change he wrought in his country would never have happened to an unfree man.
Stuff to think about.