Comment by jaykru

I kind of feel motte-and-bailey'd here. You began by questioning the value of human understanding in mathematics and I've explained (exactly as you've said) why it is currently on the critical path of outcomes in science and engineering with value to humanity almost nobody would dispute. This new question, where human understanding of mathematics isn't on the critical path of anything, is something I can't argue, in the same way that I can't argue for the intrinsic value or meaning of essentially any human activity without resorting to what amount to basically religious axioms.