Note the verbiage: he was told he was "the best engineer". That might well be true even though nobody could stand him as a person.

Considering how nobody is lifting a finger to help him, I reckon nobody else particularly enjoyed having him around, but couldn't get rid of him because of their reliance on his technical prowess.

Yeah I think this is probably true. Rightly or wrongly they don't see him as a team player, but were required to keep him on because of his technical prowess.

It sounds like they're managing him out and he'll soon be on a PIP.