My idea on the question of this topic; that's quite literally how marketing works.
I have seen countless of engineers and companies that get all the credits.
While a big portion are just reinventing the wheel, or even worse not even that.
Just put enough money in advertisement and the whole world will know you for some kind of invention.
People will link feelings and emotions to these inventions, but at the same time forget that there might be other inventions maybe even a little better?
If you know a thing or two about marketing and physiology (if not, absolute must to read into fascinating part of science) , it's no different than known brands and products.
The same goes for patents for example. There are people with tons of patents on their name PER YEAR.
That is practically not even possible! I have talked to quite some people in bigger companies like IBM, and the majority were just co-workers (often higher up the ladder) just saying their name had to be on the patent as well.
Another example, personally I have seen some interviews with some "field experts" in certain fields of electronics.
Most of the time these people are called experts only because they worked for some very known companies.
However, the information they were giving in those interviews showed people very clearly that they were just "okay engineers", but also making A LOT of mistakes and wrong explanations.
In the end it's no different than celebrities of any other kind; music, arts, religions, movies, kings, presidents
For some reason, idolizing is really a thing for us human beings.

The science behind this can be a pretty long deep rabbit hole.
If you want to know a but more about the science behind marketing here are some nice reads to start with to get familiar with certain concepts;
Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger
As well as; Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces that Shape Behavior, also by Johan Berger.
Although this isn't hardcore literature yet, it gives already so many insights as well as starting points and references to dive deeper.