I don't think it's the process so much as the outlook that's taught to younger students that the disapproval comes from. It's presented as a much smaller frame

I don't think it's the process so much as the outlook that's taught to younger students that the disapproval comes from. It's presented as a much smaller frame of study than it really is. And often it's treated so mechanistically, that rather than teaching you how understanding is important and will feed into your very worldview it's presented as something you study if you want to build assembling machines or something. My and OP's gripes might be more endemic to underfunded midwestern rural schools like I attended, but I'm sure it wasn't that rare, unfortunately.