Let's consider "only possible to be respected for completely different fields" to be a falsification of my position. I'll demark the kind of respect required as "just this side of Will_Newsome". I can't quite consider my respect for Will to fit into specific respect within the lesswrong namespace due to disparities in context relevant belief being beyond a threshold. But I can certainly imagine there being a contrarian that is slightly less extreme that is respect-worthy even at the local level.

I think part of the problem with identifying contrarians that can be respected is that seldom will people who disagree because they are correct or have thought well but differently on a specific issue - rather than merely being contrary in nature - also disagree on most other issues. We will then end up with many people who are contrarian about a few things but mainstream about most. And those people don't get to be called contrarians usually. If they did then I could claim to be one myself.