Most of these guys were born and already famous before the steam engine patent - let alone the real industrial boon

The Wikipedia summary isn't wrong, it is just misleading. The inventions and innovations that lead to the industrial revolution were founded in the late 18C, but the real transformation was much later (although it did happen, comparatively, quickly)

It is a bit like saying that the 'Internet era' is from the 1950's, because that is when the integrated circuit was created