I think you've missed my point. There's no interesting logistics problem in "when do the trains meet?" Yes, the underlying math is useful for all sorts of thing

I think you've missed my point. There's no interesting logistics problem in "when do the trains meet?" Yes, the underlying math is useful for all sorts of things, but the word problem doesn't offer any motivation for knowing the answer. It's purely asking as an impartial observer. Back when I took calculus in high school, my teacher explained how traffic speed cameras used mean value theorem to prove a car exceed the speed limit. Here, there's an actual problem, actual actors and observers, and a motivation. It answers the question why is this useful to know, or to be able to answer.