Of course there is no single best road to mathematics, mainly because the way humans are able to think isn't uniform. There are people with more or less Aphant

Of course there is no single best road to mathematics, mainly because the way humans are able to think isn't uniform. There are people with more or less Aphantasia, so people who can't or have a hard time forming mental images. Then there are others who can rotate 3 bezier curves in their head and plot the intersections. For students of the latter category relying on mental images is a great way to teach them, for the former it is catastrophical. Anybody who has thought anything mathematical should be aware of the fact that different people prefer different ways of learning.