Vitalik is in no way innocent. He is responsible for the design of Ethereum, and he seems to also be responsible for how the Ethereum Foundation's portion of the pre-mine is spent.

However, Vitalik isn't 100% responsible either. There were other founders and a bunch of other programmers, all of whom share the blame for the scam. But I would guess he is probably the most responsible of all the people at the Ethereum Foundation.

But his level of responsibility won't matter when Ethereum crashes. He is the frontman for Ethereum, so he is the most likely to be attacked by some rando when Ethereum crashes. But any such attack will be unjustified, since that can't get back any of the money lost to the financial blackhole known as Ethereum.

I haven't seen any evidence that Vitalik is motivated by vanity. I see evidence that he thinks Ethereum is a good idea, so he probably has pride in his work. As far as his public appearance I've seen lots of pictures of him where he's dressed like a slob. If he were cultivating a public image, he's doing the worst job I've ever seen. He doesn't even have a personal brand; it's all about Ethereum for him.