Yet being ignorant of the low-level details is still a curse, a disability, if you will.

That very much depends on how leaky the abstractions are.

The things you consider "low-level" are themselves quite high level and abstract. A "register" and a "cpu instruction" are abstractions too. Yet you can take them for granted without worrying about the microcode inside the CPU, or the clock propagation, or quantum leakage in the logic gates. Etc.

We need good abstractions, and when they're actually good we shouldn't worry ourselves about what's going on inside the box, unless for the pure fun of hacking.

In practical terms, I agree with you that most people who are trying to write software today would benefit from knowing more of the layers below them. But this is only necessary because of the shortcomings of our abstractions.

If we achieve a glorious future where all people can wield the full power of general purpose computers, it won't be because everybody learned all the arcane layers. It will be because we put together really powerful abstractions.