It's not really hero worship, although it can morph into that or just look like that. Really, it's just that so many people aligned with the "SV culture" you mention want to be them. When someone has achieved all that you're shooting for, you have a vast personal investment in lionizing them while in your "I'll be that guy someday!"-phase.

Then of course you just have the reality that plenty of the love coming their way is just... well... ass-kissing for favors, status, money, or in some vague hope of some of those.

Until or unless enough talented people figure out that they'd have better odds playing the lottery than aiming to become an SV oligarch/plutocrat, there will continue to be a culture of this intensely covetous "worship", that almost inevitably morphs into loathing and resentment.

That's just the "in" people... the public at large is either subjected to intense marketing and PR, or unaware of such people.