From my experience, I think you're right. Corporations move forward b/c of people like that. Everyone else just maintains what the corp has, drives it slightly forward, or drives it backwards. The leaps come from the Nucalc guys.

One of the beautiful things about the Silicon Valley startup industry is that they've restructured the way things work so that those people also reap the fruit of their devotion, and continue to drive it in that direction (ref PG's recent essay on the future of VC).