Chopin's etudes, starting with the op. 10 set, completely and utterly revolutionized piano technique. Compare them with the then trendy virtouso music by composers such as Henselt, Hummel, Czerny, Kalkbrenner, Moscheles, Weber, Mendelssohn etc. Chopin created something entirely new. To create his own virtuoso piano style, Liszt drew heavily from Chopin. Skrjabin and Rachmaninoff wrote fantastic music, but in terms of piano technique, they are footnotes to Chopin.
For their revolutionary role in the development of piano music the Chopin Etudes deserve as much attention as the Beethoven sonatas. If anything, they receive too little attention on this forum.