The sad thing is 99% people mean "honored" of the the (opposite of humbled) when they say "humbled" ("I'm so humbled to be recognized by the best by so many people"), but here was a rare case that "humbled" fits.
Humbled to be recognized seems to mean something like: "You're all so astute for recognizing me in this way that your astuteness humbles me in return". I find it confusing, and likely disingenuous. Maybe I'm not understanding it properly. Or it's just being misused like you say, but it never occurred to me that what they really mean is simply that they feel honored and choose not to use that word for whatever reason.
