Unlike this cardinal, he was a low-profile unknown (as far as the public was concerned) going into his conclave.
By many accounts, he was chosen because he had impressed many of his fellow cardinals the month before, when he had participated in the conclave for John Paul I.
When Blessed John Paul II was still Cardinal Karol Wotyla, in 1969, he came to New Britain, CT, USA to visit the Polish Catholic commnities their. At one of the Catholic parishs, there is I believe a dedicated to him a shrine.
He was well known to some cardinals long before he JPI conclave. He had participated in Vatican II and not as a wallflower and his book on sexuality was well known and respected. His philosophical writings and his work implementing the council in Poland were also known.
He was unknown to the media and to world-illiterate Catholics in the US and Western Europe. But that’s always a good sign, when the low-information Catholics don’t know about someone. Beware the candidate that the LICs know well.