[oblivion]

"Does his epiphany matter? If you believe that his epiphany does matter, you also believe in the meaning of temporary things - of what leaves an impression, but not a legacy."

There are two things here I'd like to comment. First, the question is incomplete, it can be either "does his epiphany matter to the man?" or "does his epiphany matter to the reader?".

The first version has the obvious answer "Yes", of course it matters for him, he doesn't know he'll die soon, nor does he care at that moment.

For the second version the answer, for me at least, is also "Yes", but for a different reason than the one you give. I say his result matters because now we know (we'll we don't theoretically as he didn't get to tell the world) that the question has a solution which means that somebody somewhere will be able to rediscover. I think knowing there is a solution is a huge win for any hard question because you know there is a purpose in your search.