Learning algorithms is useful if you are aiming for a job that requires knowing algorithms; they're rarer but they do exist. Having a track record at such jobs

Learning algorithms is useful if you are aiming for a job that requires knowing algorithms; they're rarer but they do exist. Having a track record at such jobs opens up more career options and can be more technically interesting than the dime-a-dozen corporate SWE jobs. If that's not interesting to you, then yeah, you don't need it.