Great essay. Maybe another thing to note is that in industry we often don't need the singular best answer, but one that is "close" or "good". In fact, sometimes this is a requirement - like a sudoku solver that can handle impossible boards by generating a solution with a small number of collisions.
As evidenced by the fact that traveling salespeople exist (and are not, in general modeling experts or big AWS users), approximate solutions are often significantly easier to find - both practically and in theory.
I bring this up because it's interesting... and because my professors really didn't emphasize it until deep into my undergraduate career. So someone today might be one of today's lucky 10,000.
As evidenced by the fact that traveling salespeople exist (and are not, in general modeling experts or big AWS users), approximate solutions are often significantly easier to find - both practically and in theory.
I bring this up because it's interesting... and because my professors really didn't emphasize it until deep into my undergraduate career. So someone today might be one of today's lucky 10,000.