I agree. I have many scientists in my family and they tend to answer questions very, very literally and that’s what I noticed Fauci doing. Their minds are wired that way. Their minds aren’t wired to avoid traps and gotcha questions (as a politician’s is). That said he shouldn’t refer to a ruined economy as an “inconvenience.”
You said that better than me. If Fauci were slicker & more ‘politically astute’, I would have little confidence in him. I like that he takes questions at face value, and tries to answer them as if he were talking to half-way intelligent and honest people (we’re listening, so he’s at least partly correct). That makes him hopelessly naive — but, credible.