I respect geohotz' achievements (generally). I would never hold him up as an example of hacker culture, or his persona as one to emulate. There is a difference between these things.
Linus used to be a massive jerk until he fixed his attitude. Hackers can grow.
I've got massive respect for everybody who addresses their own problems and fixes them. Way too many people only look for the problem in other people, but it's never that simple.
They are mostly the people you never hear about in mainstream media. The quiet engineers and tinkerers of the world. Guys like Fabrice Bellard, jaquesm of hn fame, Stuff Made Here (YouTube). There are a lot of prolific hackers out there that have made or are making contributions.