I read what he said to mean you don't have to date him out of some sort of obligatory "well he as changed and contributes so much to society so it's wrong of me to judge him" - he meant and I meant - you can be his friend even volunteer alongside him, etc but you don't have to date him to prove you're not "judgey".
Like if I knew about his past and you were dating him I most likely wouldn't let him near my son especially one on one but I might take my son with me to volunteer at one of his causes etc. Certainly in dating it's ok without being superficial/judgey to simply choose not to date the person. I ended things with a recovering drug addict -sober for some years, active in AA or NA or both - because after 4 dates I realized I wasn't comfortable and he was honest that of course relapse can happen. Lovely person, intelligent, artistic, thoughtful. Not a good match for a relationship. I do think he relapsed actually. Very very sad.