There is nothing about low discrepancy sampling being a recent development. This article is about recent research and suggesting anyone involved would imply that one of the most trivial aspects of rendering is somehow new is total nonsense.
There is a recent paper about generalizing n-rooks sampling to higher dimensions which seems to have been misunderstood by yourself and others. It was written by researchers who already have dozens of high profile papers on many different topics.
That's it, no need to attribute malice anywhere. I think you are reading way too much into 'rbkillea's comments.