That's a typical programmer viewpoint. The problem is, competence usually displays itself in tactical solutions. Strategic and long-term planning do show themselves readily as so black-and-white, good-and-bad.

You admit it here, "even where someone is knowledgeable, experienced, and having apparently achieved great things, if they display something which indicates a severe lack of competence, my respect for them will automatically decrease"

I'm sorry, but everyone is incompetent somewhere or somehow. If you don't know where or how, you just don't know that person well enough.