Some of this comes down to learning-style. It sounds like your lecturer was not a visual thinker. Some people really like to just get the algebra and have-at-it

Some of this comes down to learning-style. It sounds like your lecturer was not a visual thinker. Some people really like to just get the algebra and have-at-it (not me tho.) The "model" you refer to doesn't need to be visual. There are applications of linear algebra where the visual stuff just doesn't help much.