I remembering reading about the horse manure crisis that was solved by the automobile's invention. I'd forgotten that abandoned dead horses were part of the problem.

There were some groundbreaking innovations happening in reality, but merely sped up the process; without them incremental progress would have eventually gotten us there, too.

In general, in a high dimensional space incremental progress is incredibly powerful. That's how we train neural networks, and that's how evolution works.

Courage and genius still help speed things up, when you can get them. But they are seldom absolutely necessary.

Slightly related: https://www.econlib.org/library/Columns/y2016/Boudreauxprosp... has a good point about pool noodles. Pool noodles were a minor invention at some point. Nobody really needs pool noodles to get through the day, but they do provide a bit of utility (otherwise people wouldn't buy them). Lots of small and incremental improvements in the economy look like pool noodles. But taken together they really add up.