I wouldn't go that far. Yea he made Wolfenstein 3d, but he started his work only after seeing a demo of Ultima Underworld (which was a much better 3d engine and complete game).
He is good at optimizing and using algorithms, but I don't think anyone says he is that good at writing programs. He popularized and sped up a lot of the techniques already in use. Raycasting wasn't anything new when John Carmack used it to build Wolf 3d (it was described as far back as 1982, 9 years before Wolf3d). It was also used in other games by other developers around nearly the same time, with games that were in development a lot longer.
He is good at optimizing and using algorithms, but I don't think anyone says he is that good at writing programs. He popularized and sped up a lot of the techniques already in use. Raycasting wasn't anything new when John Carmack used it to build Wolf 3d (it was described as far back as 1982, 9 years before Wolf3d). It was also used in other games by other developers around nearly the same time, with games that were in development a lot longer.