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Yeah, I agree with you on this one. It's kind of easy once you understand it, but it took Maxwell to figure it out. I might not have figured that out in ten centuries by myself lol.

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I definitely think it takes a Maxwell to describe the physics behind displacement current (which I think was not around in Maxwell's initial drafts), but the derivations of the four classic Maxwell equations are fairly straightforward multivariable calculus problems that start with fairly simple assumptions. Multivariable calculus was relatively young in his era, but I think a motivated student from the current era could discover it given a summer of thought experimentation.

See for yourself: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AWI70HXrbG0

If you want some true genius, behold the shear terror of the near field of a dipole antenna. All shall view her and despair.

For those interested, see slide 4 of section 7: Hertzian dipoles

https://courses.grainger.illinois.edu/ece350/ece350lecture_n...

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