[nickforr]

But without some statistical knowledge, isn’t there a risk of a lack of understanding about the robustness of “what works”?

[splithalf]

Statistical knowledge doesn’t remove that risk. The extent to which it even lowers the risk is a question that could be answered empirically.

[RobinL]

yeah, agreed - a good understanding of the model's statistical assumptions can often help you make the model more robust and also give you ideas for what types of feature engineering are likely to work.