[_theory_]

This is all a pretty good argument in favor of conservatism, especially the last bit. There are plenty of cultural practices that preserve or promote something valuable in society, and maybe we don't even know why they work. But they do.

Kind of like NNs...sure, maybe if you spent enough time, you could figure out exactly how each one is doing what it's doing. Or, you could accept the general principles and enjoy the results.