Excellent philosophical conundrum!

I thought it would be easy at first. Then the darn thing stuck like an intractible One Foundation earworm.   Then I deleted everything I wrote and went back to the drawing board. Now I know why they call it a conundrum.

I came around to something like if it's strictly limited to a real or imagined experience that is qualitatively the same, then I'll go out on a limb and say no, a fool's paradise is NOT any less a paradise for being that of a fool.

Eventually, it occurred to me that one difference between a real and a fool's paradise might be consequences, i.e., how does that paradise affect the fool's behavior and by extension the people around that fool? For example, a fool who sits perfectly still on a hill day after day watching the world spin around is by far preferable to a mob of starry-eyed proselytizers on a divine mission to spread their paradise.

Also, not that it addresses the conundrum, but Lesley's question about "does it matter what the person behind the mask (paradise) is actually like" kept surfacing. Of course it matters, especially as it relates to consequences. For example, if it's Taylor Swift, then perhaps not so much. But if it's a flagrant con artist with no empathy dangling paradise as bait for entrapment and personal gain, then it matters a whole lot.

Then the question of what business of mine is it if a fool wants to enjoy his or her paradise popped-up. Again, publicly or privately? This much I know: as a good neighber and a tiny thread in the fabric of humanity, I feel a duty to call 911 when I see a robber or an arsonist enter my neighbor's house paradise!*

The conundrum also goes to an old forum question about whether it might be better for old-age lifers to live out their days in their (false, make-believe or fool's) paradise because the shock and trauma of coming to terms with the truth about Prem Rawat at that stage in their lives might be too much for them to bear, i.e., hazardous to their health.

These are the best non-answers I can come-up with.   Also, it's reassuring that you heard Prem Rawat say the same thing I heard him say. Now I know I'm not entirely crazy.

* An analogy to the damage done to victims of personality cults.