ML "techniques" are algorithms too, so they are a subset of algorithms you can learn. Is it worth learning them? Yes. Is it worth learning them to the exclusio

ML "techniques" are algorithms too, so they are a subset of algorithms you can learn. Is it worth learning them? Yes. Is it worth learning them to the exclusion of "classical" algorithms? Probably not. But if you want ML knowledge that is almost certain to be just as useful in 5 years as today, the best thing you can do is study the fundamentals - probability, statistics, linear algebra.