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I agree with you that memorization is an optimization for getting daily task done (maybe not as optimal when novel solutions are needed; understanding/mental model might win out here). But we have tools to help take the load off memorization. The person that `understands` addition not as 7 + 7 but as incrementing a number a certain amount of times can use a calculator to solve the problem in a more efficient way.

I would probably not make a developer who had great mental models but lacked coding chops my first hire. Nor the programmer that could make code do amazing things but can not grasp the domain model. I would, however, probably consider them(the mental model one) the 100th to clean up backlogged bug fixes, and the code whiz to implement the more technically difficult backend niche feature/optimization. As much as it pains me to say it, github copilot chat works surprisingly well IF you can give it a clear concise description of the model and expectations. Then someone with an excellent mental model can create the smaller lego pieces and put it together, minimal coding required. Not only for the popular languages, I play with it from time to time using clojure.