Isn't that pretty much unimpressive? Not that it's not a feat, but I'm pretty sure I saw Intel proving that a 3-atom transistor was possible a couple of years ago.
Essentially that is the meat of it. Its an academic exercise, and no doubt some value will come of it. We can't learn about the limits of the frontiers of semiconductor operation unless we build one-off devices that enable us to probe it experimentally.
At the same time there is a big difference between an academic exercise and reducing the experiment to a commercially viable productization pathway. Look at fusion, or splitting water to hydrogen, or the quantum computer...all can be done and it is great that researchers have figured out how to get the experiments functional but until the experiments are reduced to commercially viable products there is little "wow" factor involved for the lay person.
So then they (scientist, publisher, journalist, someone) needlessly hype up the prospects of the technological advance by making outlandish claims like "with this technology you could have 20GHz computers in 3-5yrs! and cure cancer while talking to aliens!".
That's where the value of the scientific breakthru is lost in translation and the masses end up with an artificially inflated sense of expectation...fast forward 10yrs and expectations aren't met by reality and now you have depressed/jaded/cynical masses.
How's your flying car working out for you? Taking a trip to the moonbase for the family vacation this year? Gonna power your car on sunshine and water alone this year?