In school and in pop culture we learn all about the 5 beaches of D-day, and the role that the various allied troops played. However, Point du Hoc is hardly ever talked about or remembered, often just being a "by the way" tidbit of information.
All I remember about it was that it was carried out by Rangers and they captured it a day later, June 7th. But what was the point? And what was the subsequent follow-up?
Pointe du Hoc was said to have six heavy guns encased in concrete that could fire on both Omaha and Utah beaches (it sits between the two). The Rangers were to take this position either by direct assault up the cliffs, or if that failed, another Ranger force was to go overland from the landings at Omaha and take them. Ranger Force B did scale the cliffs to take the mortar positions there, but found the guns had been moved inland. The Rangers proceeded to that objective about a mile away, and spiked the guns with thermite grenades. For the next two days, they fought off several counterattacks, finally being relieved when the rest of the Rangers linked with them on June 8. For their actions there as well as the Rangers that landed on Dog beach at Omaha (depicted in Saving Private Ryan), the 2nd Ranger Battalion receieved the Distinguished Unit Citation.
As to your first premise, I would argue the assault on Pointe du Hoc is portrayed and remembered far more often than even mention of the British or Canadian assaults, at least in the US. Many Americans I dare say don't even know that three of the beach assaults were not American ones. The grappling hook/cliff scaling remains popular in American history as a crazy stunt that by any stretch should not have gone as well as it did. In the greater scheme, however, the main goal was simply not there, rendering much of the initial effort and the heroics that went with it moot. Its kind of like if a hostage rescue did loads of prep work, tossed flashbangs, breached the door, and everything went well, only to find they were in the wrong room and the hostages were two doors down. Doesn't mean they didn't do the job and do it well and fast, but with so many things taking place all across the Normandy area on that same day, the assault itself wasn't as grand an ordeal since the actual objective was further from the beachhead. Partly too, is that D-Day to most Americans means Omaha Beach. Because the assault everywhere else went incredibly smooth by comparison (not counting the airborne drops), and Omaha was so bloody, that single beach became the defining memory of the entire beach landings. Everything else became a sideshow, even if it wasn't.