I think this may also a good example of why they say programmers don't need math. Very few people have the opportunity to even be in a position of inventing new algorithms like this. They are just going to read the relevant academic papers or use a library that implements it for them to make use of something like this in their own code. Even if you fully understand why the algorithm works, there is still a certain impostor syndrome at play for not being the one to invent it, leading people to believe they do not know math.