I agree. There's also another thing that happens, which is to look at a big mess of twisty code and think about it, finally seeing that it should have been don

I agree. There's also another thing that happens, which is to look at a big mess of twisty code and think about it, finally seeing that it should have been done as a simple algorithm. Then you get to delete a lot of code and replace it with a small bit of clear code. There are many more ways the simple things learned in school help in the real world.