Honestly, I find that having some basic semblance of cooperation and teamwork skills is much more important to productivity and success than having the best engineer ever. The best engineer ever could probably do everything much faster than the rest of the team -- however I've seen first hand how this kind of attitude slowly chips away at the team spirit due to their self-centeredness. It's surprising how quickly their toxicity can affect a work environment to the point that it affects your whole team's work performance & retention.
I'd rather have a chance to hire an idiot (who will be easier to get rid of) than the certainty a genius who can do the work of 2 people, while alienating everyone else and deftly skirting the line of employment law. It's not a coward or a fear based thing. It's basic logic and efficiency on a whole. This is why some of the best engineers and scientists get passed up -- they're just toxic individuals that are impossible to work with.
I want to emphasise that this isn't saying that I think most brilliant engineers have poor teamwork skills. I just think that the language of this website perfectly describes the kinds of engineers you DONT want. Selfish and self important.
Unless this is parody, in which case, why bother posting this here?