NileRed has a humorous YouTube video where he bakes cookies using only NIST reference ingredients. It costs something like $2000 to bake a single cookie and has all the flavor of cardboard.
About the only time my cooking is science is candy. Every degree matters, percentage matters so much, etc. A few degrees means crystals are radically different.
I think the two important differences are that the results of bad cooking tend to be slightly more edible than the results of bad baking, so many people don't even realize they can't cook. And many more people are forced into cooking via necessity, so the average skill level is higher.
Raw dough is always raw dough. You can't fake rising, etc.
Not to mention, if you watch cooking/baking shows, you'll see just how much overlap there really is. Some challenges in Masterchef involves baked goods, cakes, macaroons, etc. Some challenges in the Great British Baking Show involves cooking things. Either to make savory pies or to make compotes or jams, etc.
I will often reduce sugar, add things (cocoa, nuts and so on). As an example if you add cocoa you need to add fluid to compensate. More butter (or oil) leads to a "wetter" crumb and so on.
It takes more experience than regular cooking to do this though, and th feedback cycle is slower.
That said, cooking is generally far more forgiving that baking. If you put some amount of chicken in an oven set to a temperature of "very hot", you'll eventually have cooked chicken.
If you mix some amount of flour, water, and yeast, let it sit for some amount of time, and then put it in a "very hot" oven, you're unlikely to end up with what anyone would call "bread". It may not even really be that edible unless you were to grind it back into a power and mix it with water.
Isn't that the entire point of everything done? Crazy wild ass things nobody in their right mind would try, but getting to watch someone else do it drives those views.
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If you please, I request Type III, Style D, shape (d). Low-fat sugar cookies in patriotic shapes, including but not limited to Uncle Sam, Bald Eagle, Torch of Liberty, Letters "USA", American Flag, Statue of Liberty, etc.
The reference flour is like a decade old. Not exactly optimal for actual baking.