I agree with this for the most part, but I also really like the freedom/creativity that comes from having no idea how to solve a problem or whether there is eve

I agree with this for the most part, but I also really like the freedom/creativity that comes from having no idea how to solve a problem or whether there is even an optimal way of solving it. Some of my favorite solutions have come from hacking the brute force method in any way possible and coming up with interesting optimizations which I might not have found had I known the math-fact based optimal solution.