> In math you can't often solve a more advanced problem such as Calculus problem without understanding the more foundational math such as algebra, fractions, etc.
This is true to a good degree, but maybe a bit less so than you believe. Trigonometry is a topic that only clicked for me after finishing my uni calculus curriculum, I didn't get a great grade, but got by with a technique similar to how we handle complex numbers: Instead of giving up after being unable to solve an eg. weird chain of sin, arccos etc. functions, just declare it to be u(x) and do the calculus bits around it. In the last step substitute the actual function back in and you have an incomplete, yet technically correct solution.