This has been my experience with trying to get a foothold in the technical civics communities, so I don't think it's either. I've found that the bar gets set pretty high by folks who are willing to speak loudly about their accomplishments in a ways that exaggerate the actual accomplishments. If you're not really good sales person towards your own work, you find yourself working significantly harder than what's probably needed since fewer people are willing to work with someone who hasn't had any accomplishments. It really sucks that ego and salesmanship gets in the way of trying to do civics work.