Good points, and I agree.
The Netflix prize is interesting. According to a summary post on the Netflix forum
the early results were mainly by individuals...
the team members began to coalesce and combine, and
in the end, entire teams coalesced and recombined.
I can only speculate that the combination of a deadline, a problem that was too hard for any individual and a common forum for exchanging ideas helped encourage team formation. (I.e when you realize that you can't do this alone, teaming up is a rational thing to do.)
I assume that the problems we (as in society, humanity) want to tackle will grow ever more complex in the future, and may easily outgrow the capacity of individuals.
So yes, perhaps we could/should learn from how the Netflix prize played out...