The Climber’s Point of View...
We cannot expect all who fancy themselves serious mountain climbers to be receptive to reports that their discovery can be reached with a short uphill walk through the forest, by folks who’ve never seen an icepick (or Lorentz transformation, for that matter)!
The initial reception of Minkowski’s result illustrate this response, as does the decades that have passed without telling intro-physics students that even their novitiate leg muscles can give them a view of the clearing he discovered.
Although Minkowski’s process for getting there was new and revolutionary, the experts chose to focus on the goal only, saying: We already know about this lake, so what’s new?*
Answer: Minkowski’s trail led to the side of the lake from which the path to general relativity was accessed. Thus revolutions in physics come from discoveries of process as well as landscape, since new and especially shorter trails may access paths to goals further on.
* e.g. Page 34 of Einstein’s 1912 Manuscript on the Special Theory: A Facsimile (Braziller, Inc., 1996).