I agree. The important advance in the first half of the 20th century was understanding how atoms work, and that knowledge lead
directly
to semiconductors, the nuclear industry, and laid the foundation for modern chemistry, materials science and all the analytical technologies than enable chemistry, physics etc (i.e. x-ray analytical techniques, mass spectrometers).
Something that I did not know until recently was that the "mineralogy" of steel was not understood until the 20th century. If you do not understand the phases comprising a material, it is difficult to relate bulk material properties to bulk composition.