It's a subset of the misunderstanding of "meritocracy" that defines it as "how well you can do at a narrowly-defined task" as opposed to the practical definition of "How many people know how well you do at a narrowly-defined task."

Our industry is shot-through with idealists who believe meritocracy should be the former, when in reality it's always been the latter (and always will be, unless someone can invent omniscient humans).