"I would say that maybe Einstein's insight was more brilliant than Newton's were, but when you think of it, the laws of gravity really were a major insight."
This ranking business is childish.
Newton's Principia (written in 18 months) changed the world like nobody has before or since.
Before him there was no belief that the laws of nature were universal. That is, that things on Earth acted liked they did in the heavens and vice versa.
And theories, like Copernicus' were just fairytales. Myths. Likely stories. For there was no reason for things to be that way. No glue. (Such as gravity.)
Not to mention the small fact that Newtonian physics got us to the moon. Enstein and these other johnny come latelys had practically nothing to do with that-- or much else that is done in every day engineering and applied physics.
That is changing and will change more in the future. But still, there it is.
I disagree. Most of the modern "stuff" we use every day is due to something called Quantum Mechanics.