You fail to address the point of the New York Times story referenced in the original post: There is a tribe that uses cardinal directions all the time, instead of left, right, front and back, and it does have a big effect on their spatial orientation abilities. This looks like an example where the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis applies. One example, that's all it takes to prove that the phenomenon exists.
So the OP might very well be right: maybe we can hack our minds to get new abilities simply by changing our language. Maybe not much beyond this spatial orientation example, but who knows...
So the OP might very well be right: maybe we can hack our minds to get new abilities simply by changing our language. Maybe not much beyond this spatial orientation example, but who knows...