Which is a comparison that makes complete sense. When you say that someone is leading the way, you are clearly referring to them being at the forefront at the time when they were leading the way. Any system that was a trail blazer 100+ years ago should be outdated by now, unless progress stopped or went backwards in the meantime.
Completely unrelated to the meme: Whenever I see this picture I just can’t help thinking about how it must have felt to be literally Elvis in that moment. It’s honestly an awesome photo in the way you can tell that this guy feels like the king of the world right there.