It's a complement, not a substitute:
But mastering those basics is extremely useful!
As Michael Nielsen puts it: imagine trying to write a French sonnet if you have to look up the translation for every word you think of using. Mastering the rote basics is essential, in many settings, for mastery of the larger project -- and that's what spaced repetition does well.
(The titular insight seems pretty deep, thanks for sharing this)
This is not exactly central to your main argument, but I think it's worth pointing out, since this is something I see even economists I really respect like Scott Sumner being imprecise about: Even if markets are efficient (and I agree they pretty much are!), then prices can still be predictable.
This is the standard view in academic asset pricing theory. The trick is that: under the EMH, risk-adjusted returns must follow a random walk, not that returns themselves must follow a random walk. I have an essay explaining this in more detail for the curious.
Interesting thanks -- an ongoing RCT, ending in September this year, looks relevant.