I can't find the quote, but Steve Jobs said something about all great human accomplishments being the result of teams.
I think most of realize there are large teams of people working behind all these great visions. However, it's not like tens of thousands of people spontaneously get together without the visionary and solved these problems on their own. It does happen occasionally (e.g. Linux), but, in general, the visionary is very critical.
Exactly. The visionary is the catalyst that brings everyone together and makes the accomplishment possible in the first place. This is why personality cults (in this context) are appropriate, in my opinion. Without Jobs, we would not have Apple today. Without Musk, we would not have Paypal, Tesla, or SpaceX.
The thing with visionaries that sets them apart from other people is that they are one of a kind. Whereas the vast majority of their team consists of people that, for the most part, are expendable. You can always find more engineers or product people or salesmen. You cannot find more Jobs or Musks.
I think most of realize there are large teams of people working behind all these great visions. However, it's not like tens of thousands of people spontaneously get together without the visionary and solved these problems on their own. It does happen occasionally (e.g. Linux), but, in general, the visionary is very critical.