Nice presentation. I would probably have written it as an additive group (and then shown that the two strand braid was isomorphic with ℤ) as a further bidirectional intuition anchor (both "look, this new thing relates to something you are familiar with" and "this thing you are familiar with generalizes in unexpected ways").

Definitely liked the exploration of how theorems arise from speculation, and don't spring fully formed straight from Zeus's forehead.