Isn't there a difference between getting attention and being a great / legendary / [insert other hyperbole]? There are some amazing thinkers in any field, but they often stay within their field of study. Hardly any manage to get out, and I think the author of the article is more interested in which authors manage to do so. You can easily get attention if you scream loud enough and annoy enough people - look at how many people know the Westboro Baptist Church. That doesn't make them legendary, I think.
You are right. There is a difference in being legandary and getting attention. But you must have and have held people's attention to be described as legandary. Getting attention alone doesn't make you legendary, it's simply a prerequisite so to speak. Those who are attempting to be legendary are after the wrong things though. They must first seek to get and hold people's attention and then create something worthwhile and great enough to have people remember it tomorrow. If those are your goals I doubt you will have much success. Those who are great typically are trying to create or explore something meaningful - to create something that can impact the world or people or a single person. In the process, those who happen to explore something interesting get noticed more often and may become legendary. However, if you seek to simply explore something interesting it's not going to work. You have to have a bunch of things and, last time I checked, there's no hacking you way to legendary.