Steve, Larry, Notch, and the Instagram guys can know what they did made a difference. The world is a different place because they lived. They connected the important dots and hacked life...
Also there are many people who make a big difference without achieving fame and fortune. Even within the tech industry I would argue that, for example, Dennis Ritchie's contributions were far more fundamentally important than any of the people you listed, yet he never achieved the massive wealth or mainstream fame of those you've mentioned.
By the way, why wouldn't you mention Bertrand Meyer or Niklaus Wirth?
I'm also a researcher, and I like to think that the ideas I discover will outlast me and will make a difference.
Your implication is that those who think of software as a 'product' to be sold are making a difference, and those who think of creating software as its own reward are not. Maybe you are right. I just wish there was a place for those of us who appreciate the craft to hang out. Hacker News, for a long time, was that place for me.
I still don't get what you're talking about, you like to look at and admire code like it's art? Can you give an example of code that gives you satisfaction to just look at it regardless what it does?
http://fabiensanglard.net/doom3/
There's actually a movement that studies code in the way you'd examine a literary work (Critical Code Studies). Sure it's very abstract, but it can be fun, see for example this book:
You could also look at livecoding - they treat coding as a performance art. For example: