[vintermann]

This is missing the point. If any of these people hadn't lived, you would have someone else in your list of world-builders, names we don't know. And you, living in that world, might be convinced your world was much preferable to our world.

The question isn't who should sit in the pantheon of great men of history. The question is, should we have such a pantheon? Are we wiser for it? Better off?