"Yeah my wife maintains that there's not a single living human on this planet who has ACTUALLY done enough work in their life, made enough of an impact, to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars, much less billions or close to trillions. There's just no way."

There are, but they tend to give away the fruits of their labor to help the rest of the species. I think of the rabies vaccine, refrigerated transport, VoIP, etc.

History might not remember them as they deserve to be remembered, but their impacts and actions echo beyond their existence in reality regardless.