Birthplace would be interesting, but there’s plenty of famous/important people who are connected to a location other than their birthplace. Think sports stars who were on a team far away from their home.
Right, but I think that's a problem for large cities like Los Angeles. There's nothing particularly "Los Angeles" about Elon Musk that I know of, he's just really famous and (maybe?) happens to live there.
And with birthplace, I think it's pretty interesting to browse the map for random tiny towns no one has heard of that happen to be the birthplaces of very famous people.
If I had to associate a place with Elon Musk, LA would probably be it. SpaceX is based in the LA area, and IIRC Musk does live down there somewhere (although I don't think it's in LA proper). Musk has also captured quite a lot of attention lately for his various antics and ventures.
The problem that LA has is that there are a lot of very famous people you might associate with it. It seems like a nearly impossible problem to solve.
I do agree that birthplace would be a more interesting map, but I think it would be more interesting for tiny places. I think LA would suffer from the exact same problem.
Maybe, but it's still lame that Denver is represented by Peyton Manning. He was there a few years, but he isn't even the first person that the phrase "Denver quarterback" calls to mind.
And with birthplace, I think it's pretty interesting to browse the map for random tiny towns no one has heard of that happen to be the birthplaces of very famous people.