I'm not saying this is a good or a bad thing, but: intro physics courses are not designed to teach physics, really. They're designed to give intuition about mec

I'm not saying this is a good or a bad thing, but: intro physics courses are not designed to teach physics, really. They're designed to give intuition about mechanics. In practice, physicists don't really think much about concepts like forces; although that's what an engineer building a bridge needs to worry about. If you want a technical and conceptually pure understanding of physics, well, that's what the next 3-8 years of study is for.