The myth of smekalka still lives strong. But there’s adaptation due to the situation on the battlefield that’s done by every miliatry, and there’s adaptation due to bottom-tier logistics, shortages, and desperation. These are indeed examples of the latter case.
Truth be told, almost every time the Russian culture has done something to “adapt” it’s been out of desperation, and re-framed later to cope with the fact they’re not strong enough a country to solve it the right way. On the other hand, you can actually see very good examples of actual adaptation and cleverness displayed by Ukrainians.
However, there’s only so many times the enemy in this case is actually able to use the tactic. Russia has absolutely no way to replace losses on the battlefield with their birth rates, which are consistently among the lowest in the whole world. Much of the manpower in soviet times was from the former bloc that’s now either at war with Russia, joined NATO, or a reluctant vassal like is the case with Belarus. Ukraine is also next to the only country in Europe where piling more bodies to the front works even to this extent, as there are fewer natural defenses compared to the likes of Poland and Finland.
Was there a conflict between NATO and Russia, it wouldn’t be long before dying at the front would be the new Russian pension scheme. A dying empire that has been quickly withering even before a war, for three decades, simply doesn’t have a route to a recovery.