Agreed and this was discussed recently in another thread-the lack of need of huge numbers to be very successful. Now, unfortunately, someone will interpret that as meaning the lifting serves no purpose in a developmental sense either which is exactly the wrong take home message. Just because the weight maxes are not as high for sprinter A vs. sprinter B or relative to athletes in other sports does NOT mean sprinter A did not derive some benefit from such training.
If they improved THEIR numbers to the point where their strength/power ouputs were higher and could be manifested in the sprinting itself then it did play a role. Naturally, like most general methods, there is a point of diminishing returns but even in that case a maintenance of such qualities can often allow for other abilities to improve.