The way I think of memorization is as scaffolding. Rote memorization is very different from the skill or understand you are trying to build, and for this reason

The way I think of memorization is as scaffolding. Rote memorization is very different from the skill or understand you are trying to build, and for this reason, many people are skeptical about the value of it. Why practice rote memorization when what you really want is very different? But this is like trying to construct a building without using scaffolding. If you only use Anki and don't do anything else, it's like building scaffolding on an empty lot, and then building more and more scaffolding without using it to build anything else.