To be fair, Yila's research on the Wind Box, although not entirely unfamiliar, could be said to be quite clueless... Even though Yila was a university graduate of the ancient research department.
He also graduated with commendable excellence from the Star Navigation Rapid Penguin Schools before the Destruction of the World by the machines... But he was still a college student, albeit one with outstanding academic performance, he was still a college student.
He did not have the extensive knowledge of things from four hundred centuries ago like the ancient professors.
So the fact that he was able to recreate many significant inventions and improvements in this world was already quite remarkable... But when it came to more specialized parts, he struggled a bit.
