Yup. Concentration is vastly over-rated. And what more ordinary people take references to concentration on the part of geniuses (eg, Newton's remark about keeping a problem in mind until it is solved) is often something else.
It really does feel like all the necessary complimenting flavor was taken out and only sugar was left.
It kinda sucks now.
I blame the stand-alone 4-page chapter style. Stand-alone one-pagers and 15+ page manga seem to be forced to keep the personalities intact while still doing a pretty good job with sweet content matter.
You may be correct, but this episode has moved a bit back towards the idea of Nikaidou as an extraordinary person, which idea, beginning with 11:4:1 was what separated the series from one simply of two girls each happily longing for the other.
(And I think that the creator will use something other than the four-page structure if-and-when he has something to say that cannot be said within it.)