Breadth

Even if you specific algorithm has not been discussed, you should point the readers to related algorithms (maybe in other contexts), or to others algorithms that solve the same problem.

Language

The response has a weird focus on English-language references.

If you have a comprehensive set of references that are not in English, you might want to add some instances of

This problem has been discussed in [normal references]. The closest work published in English we could find are [as closely related papers in English as you can find].

This allows you to include the relevant references and satisfy the editor's request of references in English.