Yes, exactly. A whole lot of math problems were not interesting until we got relatively fast digital computers as they would have taken till the end of the universe if done by hand. Then suddenly it becomes a product you can implement in a library and perform simulations of reality on. Now suddenly a lot more people are interested in the math because improving the algorithm could lead to millions in power saving, or it could lead to far higher accuracy.

Simply put, it's very hard to predict the usefulness of math at the time it's created.