Teller and Fermi were more vital to the project.
Don’t forget Groves. He put it all together.
Everyone else were middle managers, engineering leads and technicians. Teller and Fermi and loads of other scientists were in there. I love to study this and have been for a long time. If you haven’t heard of the book called “How To Photograph An Atomic Bomb”, check it out.
Agreed.
Teller, Ulam and particularly Fermi made it possible.
I look at Oppenheimer as the project manager.
And Groves
Oppenheimer was the director at Los Alamos. He made the critical decisions, such has abandoning the "Thin Man" plutonium device and charging ahead on "Fat Man" and "Little Boy."
Fermi was the associate director and in charge of a division. Before starting, he built the first atomic reactor in Chicago. Teller worked under Fermi, in charge of theory and the "super." Teller spent most of his time on "super" which eventually became the H-Bomb seven years after Trinity.
It was a huge operation, Groves in charge of it all including the other labs at Hanford Oak Ridge. It was all compartmentalized. To say that Fermi was more vital is a mischaracterization. Of the three, you can say that Teller was least vital because of his preoccupation with "super," but his team did figure out implosion.