Not entirely sure about your last paragraph, but the rest is intriguing — reminiscent of Newton's "standing on the shoulders of giants" remark [0].
Or: Imagine a variation on the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard: The grape pickers show up at the end of the growing season and do their thing. They demand to be paid the lion's share of the entire crop yield, because it was their specialized skill and hard work that produced the harvest. They conveniently forget about the earlier workers who had patiently planted and tended the vines — without which there'd have been no harvest .... [1]
Or: Imagine a variation on the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard: The grape pickers show up at the end of the growing season and do their thing. They demand to be paid the lion's share of the entire crop yield, because it was their specialized skill and hard work that produced the harvest. They conveniently forget about the earlier workers who had patiently planted and tended the vines — without which there'd have been no harvest .... [1]
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standing_on_the_shoulders_of_g...
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_Workers_in_the_...