For a trivial example, the integers under addition form a group. But they also form a ring, which is that group plus a different monoid structure (and extra rules), and the real numbers form a field (two connected groups with extra structure) which meets with the ring structure of the integers. If I write an algorithm about groups, I want a way to be able to apply it to the additive or multiplicative groups of the reals. You need the ability to easily talk about forgetting extra structure but then taking results back from the simpler structure.

Another example is dimensions. It is, as far as I know, basically impossible to encode something like “force (ie mass times distance per time squared) divided by time is commensurate with current times voltage” in a type system like that in ocaml/haskell/rust (you can maybe do it with c++ but the compiler can’t check that your template is correct)

The next problem with general algorithms is that there are isomorphisms and then there are isomorphisms so things that work in mathematics (this group is cyclic and g is a generator so for my element h, there is some integer a such that g^a=h) are sometimes infeasible on computers (the process described above is trivial in integers under addition, hard in integers mod p under multiplication, and very hard in elliptic curve groups (of rank 1), even though they are all cyclic).

I don’t think these are reasons not to try and I think Julia feels like a good language for a combination of performance and interface ergonomics, as well as the library being useful in the ecosystem of other scientific or mathematical libraries.