Saying it is not a tool is the most engineer thing ever to say.

I think there are truths in there but depends on your view.

If you have a finite time and have a goal, is learning something that takes a longer time better towards that goal than being able to move fast and accumulate more capabilities that are on hand when you ‘forget’ them?

The answer engines and the context around my goals allow me to move at an unprecedented pace and move into places that were just not possible before.

But, the nuances learned concepts are indeed skipped over or Pareto’d

Only abstractly. If you are living in the process, it is hard and very few people live that.

Which process, though? Every human alive easily went from millions of cells to billions of cells to trillions of cells.

Does it know somewhere?

When it interacts with matter, it briefly becomes something else which does!