Am I alone in thinking that the entire conversation around hiring A players is one big inside joke played on us programmers? What do we get out of dredging this particular argument up again and again and again? It's like vim vs emacs. Not only is arguing about it pointless, even if you were to come to a consensus about it, what would it matter?

I apologize if this seems overly negative, but it really does seem like programmers reach for any opportunity to be viciously divisive.