The work nobody can explain briefly is often hardest to celebrate accurately.

Celebration needs a short story, and some work refuses to provide one. When the contribution was six months of untangling something that should not have been tangled, any sentence short enough for a speech will be either wrong or dull, so the praise ends up going to whoever had a clean result to show. The failure is in the format rather than in the work. Recognition machinery is built for things that fit on a line.

If you want to honour work like this, ask the person what the hardest part was and repeat their answer in their words. Accuracy is the compliment.