Another counterpoint is that the same technology applied to chess rediscovered human opening theory - then extended it in some openings. In chess, you don't have to write a research paper to make a notable contribution. If people find your move beautiful, they put a little exclamation point next to it in the notation. AlphaZero gets plenty of those - enough for a book about its play [1].

This took multiple human generations for us to accomplish, with literal geniuses applied to the task and spending their whole lives on it. Rediscovery and expansion happened in a wall clock time that is better measured in minutes than generations.

[1]: https://www.amazon.com/Game-Changer-AlphaZeros-Groundbreakin...