In math you can find interesting patterns or way numbers work, but it's all just an idea until someone can mathematically prove it. It was thought this pattern extended to all prime numbers, but it was only a thought, a guess. This grad student proved it.
But what did he actually prove! That there is a way to generate or define a very large set of numbers subject to certain operations that we didn't know existed even though we invented the numbers and operations in the first place. It may allow us to make use of the "finding" but does it lead to a greater understanding of numbers as numbers? It is like proving in Chess that a player playing White who never makes a mistake will always win when playing against an opponent who also never makes a mistake, given the existing rules of Chess. If true, what does it say about chess, except that Chess is a game where a player playing white who never makes a mistake.... (Plot of War Games, as I recall.)