I don't think the existence of bad company politics refutes the idea that passion might be a differentiating attribute among all of these groups of employees.

I don't think the existence of bad company politics refutes the idea that passion might be a differentiating attribute among all of these groups of employees. A dev can be passionate 20h/week and solve cursed bugs and architecture issues while another only ever does straightforward tickets 40h/week (and both can be more or less adequate, depending on the situation). I do think it is rather passion as opposed to say, experience, seeing how some devs are drawn to the occasional tricky task early on. Of course this "passion" could be many things. Curiosity, a higher than average frustration tolerance, an appreciation of "virtual" successes, a desire to prove oneself on an intellectual level (perhaps even in a compensative way), having the chutzpah to set own priorities on the way forward, ...