I don't have a PhD in string theory, but would like to make the point that many times in the history of science ideas that were originally regarded as uninteresting lie dormant for a long time only to usefully surface much later in the context of new evidence.

In this case, the researcher seems to be excited specifically because of the potential of torsion to explain dark energy -- a recently discovered phenomena (although of course, oddly presaged by Einstein's cosmological constant hack).