There are some reflections on that in view of the story of the original Macintosh on Folklore.org, in particular in “Credit where due”[1] (which seems to suggest this has been the original purpose of the About box—note GNOME still uses it that way) and “Signing party”[2] (which discusses the problem of drawing the line), see also “Steve icon”[3].

[1] https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&/sto...

[2] https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&stor...

[3] https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&stor...