Yeah, a lot of the comments here are really just addressing cults writ large and opposed to why this one was particularly successful.

A significant part of this is the intersection of the cult with money and status - this stuff really took off once prominent SV personalities became associated with it, and got turbocharged when it started intersecting with the angel/incubator/VC scene, when there was implicit money involved.

It's unusually successful because -- for a time at least -- there was status (and maybe money) in carrying water for it.