I'm curious, was anyone else aware of cooperative game theory, before I mentioned it here?

I had vaguely heard of it and the main result you presented, but I didn't find it very interesting - and I still don't, even after your post. (The black hole material was much more interesting.)

In comparison, the first time I read about the Prisoner's Dilemma and the Tragedy of the Commons, my reaction was: 'this is amazing! It provides a new way to look at just about everything - littering on sidewalks, war, traffic & SUVs, cheating on taxes...' For a year or two, I saw everything through that lense.

Yes. Not to sound like a jerk, but I didn't realize it was so poorly known.

On the issue of nuggets of knowledge left, I think it's more so the case that we just don't know where we'll find them or that they aren't already well known. It will take something that will make someone who is aware of the details of some field realize that a popular account is needed because even his/her fellow smart people don't know about it.

I'd read the Wikipedia page before, for some reason it didn't seem very interesting to pursue further.

Yup. Although I think that the core is possibly a more useful concept than the Shapley value. (I actually had a vague suspicion it could be useful for Toby and Nick Bostrom's work on dealing with moral uncertainty, but never bothered to follow up.)

Yes, when I first learned about the Shapely value, I bothered everyone I knew by telling them all excited-like about it when they obviously didn't much care. :)