The agenda of press writers is to get readers. Ask any editor that wants to keep their job (just look at Gizmodo and this iPhone 4G circus). It's in their interest to write about the pop culture icons of our industry so they get readers. It's economics.
Of course this isn't meant to belittle anyone's work. Having your work read by the masses (or your code in the hands of millions) is an exciting thing and an achievement.
Really, #1 (pg), #3 (Gary V.), and AVC (Fred Wilson) were the only real "titans" that influenced my decision to go off and build a startup, and they might make up only 20% of the first order influence. The rest of the people were close friends and random HN posters. The power of a community is not in the leader its in the masses.
Of course this isn't meant to belittle anyone's work. Having your work read by the masses (or your code in the hands of millions) is an exciting thing and an achievement.