(Though here I'm tempted to respond that it's a mistake to generalize about human behavior on the basis of a few extraordinary individuals who probably--and quite atypically--love their work.)
I believe it's a mistake to represent the majority of the population's behavior off of a few extraordinary individuals.
This same egalitarianism fuels the feeling that the Secret Service shouldn't serve, in the mot du jour , as the president's Praetorian Guard--that it shouldn't take metaphorical bullets to protect his dalliances.