Because there is a sadistic tendency in our industry to celebrate overworking yourself to the bone for no real benefit to either yourself or the project you may be working on. I think more people are realizing this and are celebrating a more measured and effective approach to work.
Does everyone think that the average person has the option to stop working for months (or even a year) at a time? This is merely celebrating the wealthy doing things only the wealthy can afford to do.
You make a good point, but the parent comment was asking a more general question of why we would celebrate someone taking a sabbatical at all.
Although sometimes the importance of an important, successful person who many people look up to setting the tone is understated.
But yes...Jessica is very rich and has luxuries beyond any of our wildest imaginations so it's not really a fair comparison to "normal people" or our industry at large. Your point stands.