That might all be the case. I would simply like a thoughtful introduction to the topic about where this abstraction comes from. What is the idea behind it and what was the motivation for its invention?

After I understand the plain English concept, then give me the math notation and proof and applications.

The way it works today is often to simply leave out the first part and I believe this is why many people find it hard to develop intuition and a real understanding of the concept.

For man it's just there, you memorize it, you apply it, you take the result and simply have faith that it is what you need because some book/ prof said to solve problem X use eigenvalues.