Has there ever been an instance in history when this strategy worked? Plato argued that writing things down will make your memory worse, and less skilled as a debater (kind of true!) How are the Luddites doing at textiles? I remember the arguments that using 'high level languages' like C and Pascal will make you not understand machine specific details (kind of true!)

I respect that you want to learn how things are done, that is a great trait. But once you learn how its done, you should use the tools to free up cognitive load for more difficult tasks.