Yes, whenever I hear a story about someone I assume they were chosen because there are no better examples. I only listen to stories about the paragons of humanity. My brain has space for knowledge of like 3 people tops. Good point.
Isn't that exactly what these sort of things are about?
No one is inspired (which is usually the point of the factoids) by "this person made marginal contributions to the field for 30 years and then retired".
