I agree but only to a limited extent. There is such a thing as genius, it is very rare, and it is talent x infinity, which means no matter how many brilliant people you have in a room, they cannot match the insights and actions of a genius.
If the following had never lived, human history would not have progressed as it has: Galileo, Newton, Darwin (and Alfred Russell Wallace, I hasten to add), Einstein, Michael Polayni.