because even hard science faculties are essentially human activities, and this is political. That human showed consistent "leader" attributes, formed a support

because even hard science faculties are essentially human activities, and this is political. That human showed consistent "leader" attributes, formed a support and collaboration base of other accomplished humans in that context, and convinced everyone (apparently) that this now-obvious computer trick constituted something worth promotion. It is said repeatedly that it was "crude tricks in plain sight" .. where is the mystery?