How would someone who doesn't subscribe to a journal of physics keep up on these sorts of developments?

By searching for "columnar data" in Google Scholar or even just plain Google, for example. Thorough literature review is a must for any researcher.

I mean, that supposes you're a "researcher". It's a bit of a stretch for a software engineer looking to make their database better to dig into physics work. Which is to say, I can't say it's "sad" that someone wouldn't stray too fast outside their field to find research which isn't well publicized. It's like someone saying "do your own research" to a non technical person about a deeply technical subject.