What's more innovative a new frontend framework or getting to the moon? A more efficient way to show ads and monetize user experience or creating the first semiconductor? A large amount of innovation nowadays is just rent seeking and very gradual refinement of 80-100 year old ideas.
Without new fundamental breakthroughs we're hitting diminishing returns here
Yes, that's what the paper argues too. The inventions made during the industrial revolution were so massively impactful that today's inventions are nothing by comparison.