The problem is crypto is far more important than the performance of a sort algorithm, or any other standard comp-sci algorithm.

And it's hard. I've been in this industry over 20 years, and been involved in a bunch of high-ish profile stuff, but I know that I don't have the knowledge to touch this stuff.

But in fairness it's a combination of understanding maths and understand some low level CPU stuff. If you are into that, just start learning it. Practice it. Someone has to follow on all this work. It could be you. But if it isn't, there's a ton of interesting stuff out there that isn't crypto. (Although I'd prefer everyone understood the basics of crypto, but that won't happen in my lifetime).