[ghostpepper]

For context, I was a casual guitarist for many years before deciding to finally start learning music theory through jazz piano lessons about a year ago (which I highly recommend btw).

I think it's important to look at theory as descriptive and not proscriptive. Music is fundamentally heard, but having a common written/spoken language with well-defined terminology, structures, idioms, etc. allows musicians to communicate more clearly - eg. "sixteen bars of I VI V I in C major" vs actually playing it.