This is very impressive work.
I looked at your paper[0] and was curious why it was named "drift" sort. Even searching for 'drift' didn't show me. I mainly ask because this is noted as a stable sort and the word 'drift' implies movement; I did not expect it, from the name, to be a stable sort.
It's called driftsort because it's derived from another sort I made, glidesort: https://github.com/orlp/glidesort. Glidesort is a bit faster still for large inputs, however it was too large and complex for inclusion in the standard library, and suffered from code size penalties on small inputs. So driftsort is a slimmed down version more appropriate for general purpose.
This comment didn't explain the name or how it works.
It's just a play on words, something lightweight drifts in the wind rather than gliding on a wing. It's really not all that deep.
How does that relate to the mechanics of the algorithm?
Does quicksort explain the mechanics of the algorithm?