> To me this is the equivalent of saying "learn molecular chemistry, don't follow recipes" to someone who's trying to learn how to cook.

A more appropriate analogy would be learning specific recipes vs learning the flavour and texture of individual ingredients, so that you can mix them in new ways and learn how existing recipes work. You might want to start at the former but to be even a 'good' cook, you need to learn the latter. I guess this is more in line with the sentiment the GP is trying to express.