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The late Sol Adler was the most distinguished practitioner of the English language who ever turned his attention to "polishing" in china.
I looked up the Oxford dictionary, and it says "ever" has four meanings:
I don't think any of these meanings make sense in this sentence.
"Ever" here suggests that among those practitioners who spent some time thinking about "polishing" in China, Adler was the most distinguished - not just in this area but in the field in general.
Without it the "most" would make no sense. Without both "most" and "ever" the sentence would say simply that he was distinguished and that he thought about "polishing" in China.
