> what have you really discovered?

You’ve discovered magic.

When you read about a wizard using magic to lay waste to invading armies, how much value would you guess the armies place in whether or not the wizard truly understands the magic being used against them?

Probably none. Because the fact that the wizard doesn’t fully understand why magic works does not prevent the wizard from using it to hand invaders their asses. Science is very much the same - our own wizards used medicine that they did not understand to destroy invading hordes of bacteria.