It’s an interesting example. I experienced something similar learning to play guitar by ear from a young age and then going back to learn proper music theory as an adult. I’d learned to improvise over chords in any key just by feel, without really understanding what was going on. My playing actually became more wooden as a result of thinking things through more. It seems like a lot of human learning is based on statistical/associative pattern matching like this and real expertise requires our brains to master both prediction and explanation and combine them skillfully.