But is understanding the end goal? Understanding for the sake of understanding? Or understanding for the sake of being able to solve problems for the benefit of humanity?

Yes, understanding is the end goal. That’s what defines the field of (theoretical) mathematics. There’s a separate field, called “applied and computational mathematics” or just “applied mathematics”, for research that focuses on computing concrete results.

What is the end goal? It's not making life better for humans, because we're posting about humans fucking hating this.

It's not about improving understanding, as you just pointed out.

So why? What the purpose? Is it just pure misanthropy?

> because we're posting about humans fucking hating this

A small subset of humans who lost a bunch of comparative advantage hate it. Most people who care about math in the abstract probably think it's really cool!

Most people don't think about math, and we're watching all intellectual work "lose its comparative advantage".

The thing I liked about humanity was its ability to think. Making that valueless is not my idea of progress.

As a recent CompSci graduate and software engineer, I can sympathise with the author’s position. At the very least, these times are highly unsettling.