[urthor]

Absolutely this. You need that machine language model of how a computer works to really understand programming, otherwise you are just guessing why stuff works.

I'm not capable at all with assembler, can't write my own compiler.

But my model of how a computer works, in my head, is "functions are just sequences of bits arranged as CPU instructions." I know how it works, even though I can't write a compiler or parser.

And it's absolutely essential to how I program, even in the highest level languages (SQL explain plans).