Problems like TSP are terrible examples because we have an excellent and affordable approximation for lots of them. A working general quantum computer (if anybody builds one) will be an expensive way to slightly improve those results. It's the gold-plated HDMI cable of quantum computer applications.
Factoring isn't like dispensing tape, it has one of the few applications (breaking conventional asymmetric cryptography) for which an expensive but working general quantum computer gives you a clear benefit (with Shor's algorithm) over just buying a lot of ordinary computers.
And all these press release "breakthrough" machines can't do it because it's hard. They're at best a stalling tactic, to buy more time/money to solve the hard problems and at worst they're essentially a con.
Factoring isn't like dispensing tape, it has one of the few applications (breaking conventional asymmetric cryptography) for which an expensive but working general quantum computer gives you a clear benefit (with Shor's algorithm) over just buying a lot of ordinary computers.
And all these press release "breakthrough" machines can't do it because it's hard. They're at best a stalling tactic, to buy more time/money to solve the hard problems and at worst they're essentially a con.