Punto,
I think you hit the nail on the head there.
Smith is not known to half if not two thirds of the industry. It's only the Robinson and light market that has heard of him so when the news speaks of this highly regarded world famous heli pilot most rotary pilots are saying 'who'.
There are hundreds of extremely well accomplished pilots out there (just in the U.K) that have bundles of experience across all sorts of theatres far more dangerous and taxing than what Smith has done but we don't know of many as they choose to not shout about it and take it all in their stride.