GenX knew they weren't ever going to hold the torch, except briefly while they passed it to a millennial.
Discussion
Elon Musk is Gen X, so is Linus Torvalds, so is Adam Back. They're much more influential than you seem to think.
I would actually tend to argue that the smaller generations tend to be more influential. Ppl born in the 1930s (quite a small cohort) have tended to be very influential. Being a bit older than a large new youth generation is a powerful position to inhabit.