Self congratulations has been the ugly norm for a long time. It's all about shameless attention seeking and...wait for it...money.
I worked for an organization that PROUDLY proclaimed it's top 5 organizational status. It failed (intentionally avoided) to disclose that the awarding entity was an obscure group that would rank places using data submitted
by the "competitors" and
for a fee.
It was complete BS. Yet, year after year, the place was top 5 and ran ads triumphantly proclaiming the same. Within a few years, ALL of the senior admin's were replaced and...no more awards.
addendum:
So, industries don't promote themselves. The people within them do for their own benefit. For example, I'd wager a paycheck that the resumes circulated by those same admin's cite several years of leading a top 5 organization.