Graduate-level physics students routinely do more complicated work than either of those two did at the height of their careers, and with a better understanding

Graduate-level physics students routinely do more complicated work than either of those two did at the height of their careers, and with a better understanding of why. Just as they Einstein did relative to Newton, and Newton to Aristotle, and Aristotle to countless people before him. You cannot use Newton or Einstein as an example of a knowledgeable perspective and simultaneously ignore the fact that there exist more knowledgeable people today. That is a fallacy; you could just as well cite Aristotle or Thales or Zoroaster. They get worse as they get older, and that's not a coincidence.