I myself too have witnessed a similar thing but with not-so-algorithmic-people. I think it all comes down to the company culture and the person
actually being able to let go of their ego and improve their programming skills. It is similar to a senior developer who never learned to properly program and because of hir position is incapable of seeing faults in their code. Once you've gotten too accustomed to shitty code, it's hard to change your style which is understandable.
Probably biggest influence on this I think is the culture, if nobody tells you that your code is shit (in a kind way) you'll never learn better. But then again, some people are so hard-headed and full of themselves that they get defensive and never actually admit their faults. Though giving and receiving feedback is not easy, can give you an identity crisis once you realize you've been doing something wrong for years.
And then you have a bunch of Ivy League graduates who have spent years learning algorithms and are burning to use them but there's no actual problems that really need them.