Exceptions to every generalization aside, it seems most good fame is posthumous.
Why is that? Is that because it (fame) is no longer mitigated by whatever detracts from it? In other words, it's over; what has been done is done — nothing can take anything further from it. In the living moment, it is still being added to and detracted from. But, after it is over, fame stands on it’s own, by itself, finished. Unmitigated. Seen in final form for what it is — posthumously.
This shouldn't be so disappointing.
