Sorry I wasn't clear about "high level".

I was mostly speaking about math professors in college. I have degrees in Math and EE...advance math isn't an issue.

Having abstract intuition (aka "high level ideas") in math is incredibly value.

Sometimes things get hairy in the computation and you need to step back and consider the bigger picture again.

If you don't understand how the math works then you don't have the intuition and vice-vera.