>> but it was definitely a non-trivial extension of those ideas, and for a PhD student to find that extension it would be necessary to invest quite a bit of time digesting Isaac’s paper

The "non-trivial" is for human abilities. The weights lifted by a crane are also "non-trivial". People keep getting amazed at machine's abilities. Just like a radio telescope can see things humans can't, microscope can see the detail humans can't, we need not be amazed. The sensory perception of patterns is at different level for AI. It's a machine.