I don't totally disagree with your point. Ken Thompson is a legend, by himself. However, neither he nor the other creators made their own language, without backing. We will likely never know if by themselves, the Go creators would of had a hit. Even when it comes to talking about a legend like Ken Thompson, he still was working at Bell Labs (AT&T), and had that huge company behind his work.

Go was created at Google, and prominent among the language's goals, is that it serves their purposes.