Yes, and they set an interesting counter-example: Kevin Poulsen, Mark Abene, Elias Ladopoulos, and others took things in a sinister direction. Mitnick wasn't like that, and I think that really set him apart, but because he was the best the government had to make an example out of him.

How did Mark Abene take things in a more sinister direction than Kevin Mitnick?

He wasn't like that? Says who? Him? And you believe this? The Internet in the late 80s to the mid 90s was like the wild west -- there were a few bad actors as Mitnick was one of them. Sorry.

There were of course other major hackers at the time, but were any of these nearly as well known as Mitnick outside of law enforcement and hackers who would already know of these people?