The reason it’s still held up is because Edison was a genius at precisely one thing: marketing. He was an incredibly efficient (read: ruthlessly cutthroat) venture capitalist. That’s it.

This, and people have a tendency to hear a story, then integrate that story into their entire worldview, until the only four scientists ever to live were Einstein, Edison, Newton, and maybe Galileo.

Thus it has always been, and thus it shall remain.