I don't think it's that the concepts are contrived (although the test cases certainly are), it's just that our quantum computers are really early in their development and can't do the more complicated things yet. It's like if we had calculators that took an hour to do each arithmetic operation- the fact that people wouldn't use it doesn't mean arithmetic is contrived, just that it isn't as powerful as better alternatives.
As the quote mentions, we'll need "many thousand qubits" to reach the point where society itself is getting new benefits out of things. These contrived cases help figure out how to scale the whole system.
As the quote mentions, we'll need "many thousand qubits" to reach the point where society itself is getting new benefits out of things. These contrived cases help figure out how to scale the whole system.