Mike
To assume that someone is a hacker and they are respectable, we are going to assume that they have gotten one or more of the following computer certifications: Security+, CEH, CISSP, CySA+, CASP+, among others. These are the people TRAINED to hack but they hack with the intention to help an organization secure their infrastructure (and it's legal to do so if there is permission and a paper trail agreeing to this). Kali is just a tool that they can use. In theory, they can use BackBox, Pentoo, BlackArch, and others that are available to do the same thing.
keerok
The words "respectable" and "hacker" should not go together in the same sentence. When one is as good as can be, any distro of Linux will do.
The_Doc_Man
To most people, your question is already somewhat self-contradictory because there is no such thing as a respectable hacker. Unless s/he's a "white-hat" hacker or a Certified Ethical Hacker.
To all CEH's and white hats out there, no disrespect to you. To others, no respect at all. I worked for the U.S. Navy in an Enterprise Data Center. To me, hackers were the cause of nothing but trouble.
Adrian
A "low to mid-level" hacker, maybe would use that tool to snoop on wifi. High level hackers have better methods...
I've used Kali to crack wifi passwords, with some success. However, those tools are rather limited for serious hacking into operating systems.
Anonymous
I'd consider it a "script kiddie" toy.