Sorting has long been known as something that can be bound with more comparison units. Batcher's sort, as an example, is far from a new algorithm. So, to that end, being able to sort a collection in lgN time is quite appealing.

What I take this paper as doing, is seeing how close we are to being able to take it for granted that you can sort large collections in lgN time, instead of NlgN time. My guess is we are a ways from there, but probably not as far as I think.