That kind of perpetuates the myth of the solo inventor as the only true innovator, when in reality it tends to be groups of people, formally or informally affiliated, that move the ball forward on science, engineering, etc. Like the teams of people employed by Edison, who was as much a project manager as he was an inventor. Or look at something like the Manhattan project, where a vast team of very smart people worked together. Or the Bletchly park folks, of whom Turing may have been the most prominent but by no means the only smart person to help solve the problem of decoding German communication. He worked closely with others that offered their own significant improvements to the bombe, including three Polish crypt-analysts (most notably Rejewski) that Turing worked with to further development.
Perhaps it’s more relevant to consumer facing products that require a balance of features, performance, and user experience to be good. I think that’s harder for a committee to do than scientific work. While USB isn’t a singular product, it is a component of consumer products, however. I wonder if much of the success of Apple was due in large part to Steve Jobs’ heavy personal involvement at the design stage, and his famous rough-edged character.
A committee of smart people will find the most elegant solution to fuck up a problem.