Simplicity in an algorithm has limited direct impact on its usefulness in industry where libraries are prevalent.
Consider mapping structures with Θ(k) expected lookup times. The simplest implementation is a hash table with chaining. Open-addressing is a bit more complicated, but also more common. Tries, which have O(k) worst-case lookup times are often covered in Undergraduate courses and are definitely easier to analyze and implement than forms of open-addressed hash-tables that have O(k) guarantees (e.g. Cuckoo hashing).
Consider mapping structures with Θ(k) expected lookup times. The simplest implementation is a hash table with chaining. Open-addressing is a bit more complicated, but also more common. Tries, which have O(k) worst-case lookup times are often covered in Undergraduate courses and are definitely easier to analyze and implement than forms of open-addressed hash-tables that have O(k) guarantees (e.g. Cuckoo hashing).