With no offense intended to mathematicians, a lot of the higher level material in my pure math courses tends to be of the "How many angels can dance on the head

With no offense intended to mathematicians, a lot of the higher level material in my pure math courses tends to be of the "How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?" type. Debating the finer points of details that are mostly irrelevant minutia, yet which are given just as much text space as serious results that actually do things. Physics' real-world origin prevents a lot of that sort of thing, and places emphasis on a practicality I find deeply appealing. Cauchy-Riemann equations are important, here's where they come from, here's what they do, bam done.