Took a GA class during my undergrad years -- actually went to a neighboring university to do it because mine didn't offer it -- and it informed a research project I got a tiny grant for. One of the things my prof noted was that many people looooved GAs as a research topic because, at least at the time, a good chunk of related work was in coming up with ideas for fitness functions and examining them and that's a vein a reasonably creative person could mine for publishing for a long time.
I think that the most fun part of writing this article was coming up with simple examples that adequately demonstrated the components of a GA. I agree that creativity is a huge asset in the topic!
