Yes, this is precisely the point the author of the article makes in the comments: "coca: That’s actually a good point. Radix sort is analogous to what people h

Yes, this is precisely the point the author of the article makes in the comments: "coca: That’s actually a good point. Radix sort is analogous to what people have done with linear algebra. For dense matrices, you’re essentially stuck with Gaussian elimination. But most matrices encountered in applications have some exploitable special structure like sparsity. That’s where the real progress has happened in linear algebra."