People into traditional programming languages look at Mathematica and see abstractions for which they see no purpose.

People into PL research look at Mathematica and scoff at its low-brow, for-the-masses term rewriting, lacking whatever theoretical property deemed "essential" that week.

Yet somehow the language has formalized and made more computable and consistent more domains of math, science, and increasingly data than any other.

There is no honor or glory in purposeful ignorance.