People always jump to simplistic conclusions and forget all the nuances involved.
As another example, The Art of Memorization was highly developed in Ancient India in order to preserve and transmit the vast corpus of "Hindu Literature" consisting of Vedas/Puranas/Kavyas/etc. It is quite fascinating to see how important Memorization has been to Human development and progress across centuries.
Modern Science has now shown us that Memorization has distinct positive effects on the Brain too.
1) Extensive long-term verbal memory training is associated with brain plasticity : https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8102627/
2) A Neuroscientist Explores the "Sanskrit Effect" : https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/a-neurosci...
3) Navigation-related structural change in the hippocampi of taxi drivers : https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.070039597
4) Cache Cab: Taxi Drivers' Brains Grow to Navigate London's Streets : https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/london-taxi-memor...