The broader point--that research takes a certain amount of courage--is generally true, but to me, it's weird to make the point by focusing on Oppenheimer's lack of a Nobel Prize. It's not exceptionally rare that someone so brilliant just happened to miss a Nobel.
Scientists, as individual human beings with limited time and energy, have to make an informed decision on just how far they really want to pursue an idea. The fact is that brilliant scientists have just as easily followed dead-end paths as have failed to go far enough down the right one. Hindsight is 20/20, so it's easy to see which is which only now.