I guess I disagree with this assessment. There are many famous architects who are famous precisely for the criteria you listed as 'blue collar' here: Peter Zum

I guess I disagree with this assessment. There are many famous architects who are famous precisely for the criteria you listed as 'blue collar' here: Peter Zumthor, Herzog & de Meuron, Rafael Moneo, Alvaro Siza. They tend to work from the construction of the building up, they repurpose historical buildings. They are also massively famous, teach at prestigious universities and write a lot of books (Zumthor excepted, although he is likely the most popular of all of these guys). The 'white collar' type you mention here seems to resemble Gehry the most, but as I've detailed in another comment is not considered a great architect.