I don't get the impression that several hundred/thousand individuals had anything to do with this being solved by this person, except perhaps by virtue of not solving it and thereby leaving it to be an open problem with the opportunity to be solved.
After reading the article, this didn't come across as a "standing on the shoulders of giants" situation, but rather that this person by chance had the problem, found it interesting enough to work on, and happened to try the right path to solve it.
After reading the article, this didn't come across as a "standing on the shoulders of giants" situation, but rather that this person by chance had the problem, found it interesting enough to work on, and happened to try the right path to solve it.