While I think, that you may be right, that most papers are not about proofs, and that higher math is mostly about proofs, I still think it is math and important

While I think, that you may be right, that most papers are not about proofs, and that higher math is mostly about proofs, I still think it is math and important math at that. Perhaps it is a link in the chain between mathematics and engineering skills. The proof centered math is indeed the difficult one. I struggled with a lot at university and was completely unprepared for that finishing school. So I think I have a good idea about the difference in difficulty.