"Note: This attack requires a large amount of RAM. They may have saved a few operations, but they increased the total cost by many orders of magnitude over a brute-force search because they need a larger machine."
Is this terribly relevant though? Deep Crack was a quarter of a million dollars (90s dollars) as I recall.
Yes. The entire concept of cryptanalysis revolves around cost factors. It is very relevant when a new avenue of attack costs more than brute force in its best known mode of implementation.
That doesn't make the research a dead end, but it further reduces the relevance of this work to engineers.
It depends on whether "a large amount of RAM" means "a quarter of a million dollars' worth of RAM" or "an amount of RAM substantially larger than the Milky Way galaxy".
Is this terribly relevant though? Deep Crack was a quarter of a million dollars (90s dollars) as I recall.