Of course, but those contributions are more often to the edge of our knowledge and done by a large professional research team, as opposed to a smart aristocrat

Of course, but those contributions are more often to the edge of our knowledge and done by a large professional research team, as opposed to a smart aristocrat in their spare time. That's the difference. The closest equivalent I can think of these days is Satoshi Nakamoto - assuming it's one person. But even their discovery is in a subfield of a subfield.