Like everything in life, it isn’t that straightforward or clear cut.
Your statement is ‘only’ true when students are learning.
Just like trainee creatives have to learn from those who know more than them.
Once the exams are passed then the talent of the academic is seen.
Or not.
To get there you need a teacher.
Being a teacher is a skill and a discipline in and of itself.
Something that has been sadly lost in modern times.
A teacher isn’t just someone who was ‘there’.
Kevin Pietersen’s articles on cricket are unintelligible.
And Nick Mason would be the worst person to ask about the psychedelic 60’s.
Assuming he did the psychedelic 60’s correctly.

ps.
Ted Hughes studied English at Pembroke College, Cambridge where he met fellow student Sylvia Plath.
Between them, they passed a fair number of exams.

pps.
I’m a fan.