This is an internet comment section, if you are talking about things being exponentially hard and part of your comment is asking "why this is not merely O(28^2)

This is an internet comment section, if you are talking about things being exponentially hard and part of your comment is asking "why this is not merely O(28^2) harder (or do you need the electrons too?)" then of course people are going to think you don't understand what exponential means.