[leereeves]

I think it's honesty rather than idealism. If someone took a shortcut by reading Wikipedia instead of research papers, it would be dishonest to try to hide that.

Of course, dishonesty often works, but it undermines the whole endeavor.

(Although, the original author still deserves credit for their work. Perhaps the citation should be to the original work "via Wikipedia".)

[fooker]

Well, a citation usually not about where you found something. It's more about trying to trace the origin about a particular fact or scientific contribution.