It isn't. Half the world already relies on ORM frameworks that barely require any input from the developer to setup relational databases, let alone knowledge on how to normalize them.
On the rare occurrences a project feels that specialization on relational database design is relevant, more often than not it's far more useful to require expertise on specific RDBMS than trivia tricks.
> If those things aren't math to you (...)
You're missing the whole point. No one is arguing that you have math formalisms. The whole point is that those formalisms do not add any value at all. Don't you understand that?
I mean, I can whip out a web app with multiple services running in the backend and with datastore using both DynamoDB and S3, and build a business around it. We can do this without ever knowing who Jack or Joe or Jim or Jose Cobb was, let alone what he wrote. What does it tell you?