Creative people value their creativity above all, and they crave more than anything else the external confirmation of their creative talents. It's not good enough to have the boss pat you on the head and compliment your work, because your boss doesn't understand the creative issues. The best, most satisfying confirmation of your creative talents is the respect and esteem of your peers. Tom Clancy may be a commercially successful author, but in a gathering of writers his commercial success won't get him an ounce of respect. The quality of his writing will determine whether he's embraced or snubbed.
Engineers are the same way.
The engineering supervisor gets respect only to the extent that he's acknowledged to be the best engineer in the group. The fact that he's the boss is a minor administrative detail in the eyes of the working engineers. Thus, every creative worker has a need to stand up in front of his peers and show off his contribution to the body of common knowledge. To deny that moment of glory is to deprive the creative worker of one of the fundamental satisfactions of the career. Most suits just can't understand this fundamental truth about creative people.