[platz]

abstractions never solve problems that couldn't have been solved without them.

[Koshkin]

Sure; it's just that doing calculations with the Roman numerals takes longer.

[thfuran]

Roman numerals are too abstract a representation of counting. I use potatoes.

[lying4fun]

~”numbers are the abstract notion, the primitive way of counting is a bijection” W. Lawvere

so the way people use “abstraction” sounds more like they are saying “a thing we (we think) are not used to”