The hard part of course is that genuinely new notation (i.e. not just a more convenient way to write the same thing as before) requires genuinely new mathematics to go along with it.

People had been doing derivatives (at least sort of) before Newton and Leibniz, Cardano (sort of) used complex numbers before Euler, algebra before Galois, categories before Mac Lane.

But these people "connected the dots", as it were. It's not merely a trick -- it's a fundamental contribution.