Largely because it started as an April Fools joke (by Kenton Varda of Protobuf fame, IIRC, who had been working on protobufs under the mentoring of Dean & Ghemawat at the time), and the joke would fall flat if it were Dean/Ghemawat facts. It just doesn't have the same ring to it.
Then it was leaked to the press, and the press wants heroes, because that's who ordinary readers can identify with. There are plenty of publications (usually in scholar journals) where Dean & Ghemawat get equal billing. They aren't Wired, and they don't usually get to the top of Hacker News (or actually, sometimes they do).
Then it was leaked to the press, and the press wants heroes, because that's who ordinary readers can identify with. There are plenty of publications (usually in scholar journals) where Dean & Ghemawat get equal billing. They aren't Wired, and they don't usually get to the top of Hacker News (or actually, sometimes they do).