It's just not though. Surely you know (or know of) people who've built successful businesses with the help of funding, and couldn't have done so without it.

Just because someone takes funding, doesn't make them any less or a part of some "built" system. Even my favourite bakery could never have got started without funding - with debt not equity. It doesn't make him any less brilliant. He would've had to be extremely rich so start the business otherwise