What is it about theoretical physics that makes people on the internet (with zero understanding of the context) feel entitled to snarkily attack results such as this?

The research in the article is about as innocuous as it gets — uncovering another possible way to get a handle on the math of quantum field theories. It’s not like millions of dollars went into the research (just the modest salaries of the four theorists). No major applications as yet — the Quanta title “…shaking up physics” is certainly not true. But it’s another stone in the edifice of science.

And my god when you see the esoterica in some (most?) other academic fields, the unrelenting complaints about the solipsism of physics seem totally misdirected. When an upper bound on some complicated measure on the distribution of prime numbers is lowered, no chorus of jackals assembles on the internet to mock the proof for its lack of real world relevance. The other day I spoke with a classics professor whose primary research was on a possible alternative interpretation of one line in a Latin poem. I found it interesting and worthwhile, but wow another level of remove from the so-called real world of engineering application and commerce.

Also, to be clear, whether or not mathematical physics work winds up elucidating experiments, it is still correct and “useful” math. It’s not for nothing that the math community gave Edward Witten a Fields medal.