Then your friend spent 20 years not needing math skills. If someone spent years doing something useless to them for two decades, we wouldn’t call them efficient. But for some bizarre reason, we celebrate it as a point of honor in academia.

One counter argument to yours is that when you do need the skills, you can learn them later. It’s arguably easier than it has been at any point in human history. In that context, why front load people with something they hate doing, just because their parents think it’s a good idea? Let them wait and learn it when they need it.