What both Ansel and Edward Weston did was break away from the pictorialists and make "straight" photographs that were tack sharp and specific.
Neither of them did anything really new. They just did things better.
Henri, on the other hand, grabbed the smallest camera around and began shooting people unposed.
Firstly, your claim of "nothing really new, just better" is somewhat contradicted by your previous comment, and the role of Adams et al in pushing landscape photography towards developing its own style, rather than imitating painting too much.
Secondly, the put-down of "not new, just better" can be thrown at almost any innovator if you research their background enough --- including Cartier-Bresson. He had antecedents in street photography, like Pierre Bonnard and Édouard Vuillard. Both were better known for their painting, but Cartier-Bresson was also a painter before and after his time with photography. Carter-Bresson arguably advanced that facet of photography through a combination of talent and the arrival of better tools: his Leicas vs the Kodaks available to Bonnard and Vuillard in the late 1800's.
Thirdly, it is bemusing to read the argument that, in essence, Adam's work is inherently less important because it was mostly landscapes rather than people: what is the name of this site again?
I vote for considering AA and HCB as great and influential contributers in very different aspects of photography, and putting aside any factional claims about which was greater.