I don't think that there is a desire to "elevate him." I think there is a desire to point out that he was a better president with better policy and far greater knowledge than Reagan, the man who is now lionized as the great Republican president. Whereas Reagan looted the country and engaged in Trump-style denials of reality in order to sugar coat his actions, Nixon actually synchronized the two pillars of the American right, (i) conservative economy and (ii) white identity politics, with a liberal pragmatism. He fluffed his conservative backers with welfare queen rhetoric and lip service to federalism while expanding and centralizing entitlement spending, and he fluffed his Southern white supporters while expanding voting protections, the Philadelphia Plan, and subsidizing black entrepreneurship. He also promoted market-oriented healthcare reforms that, while a far cry from the de-marketization that I would prefer, I would think you would really like. And, of course, the EPA and OSHA.
Now, Nixon was an authoritarian, a racist, an anti-semite, and a war criminal, but I think it's helpful in pointing out that his domestic policy and posture was way, way better than his Republican predecessors.