Rote learning is the most important skill I've ever picked up. It teaches you humility and that hard work matters. It's unattractive but I found it fundamental to my education.

It's useful to bootstrap things but it cripples your mind too, often you need to be creative and that's where rote learning stops being useful.

But in a way, I feel like many times, I reach understanding of a topic, after some information has sit in my brain enough that "i get it". I often don't feel I've done something special compared to my state the day before. So maybe it's all rote learning.

It does not cripple your creativity it helps it.

I would argue that memorization of an algorithm or formula without understanding of how they work cripples your ability to apply them creatively.

However I would also argue that memorization is the precursor to understanding.

I think the main issue with rote learning in schools is when only memorization is taught and tested. For example: teaching and testing how to solve the same type of problem and grading the accuracy of solving without having any critical thinking/application problems is, in my opinion, a mistake.

Maybe cripple is too strong, it allows for atrophy since you don't attempt to see on your own.