When doing algebra you need to be able to effortlessly do sums, multiplications, divisions, factorizations.
Meanwhile if you’re doing a physics or engineering calculation, it’s better to manipulate all the symbols algebraically and only plug in values at the final step.
I don’t see how a calculator is actually useful in driving learning outcomes.
For anything beyond that, I'd need to take it up with whoever wrote our curriculum! But I know it was mildly contentious at the time, much as the use of even more elaborate technologies are now.
You can do much of that other stuff by yourself, but no one alive carries a table of logarithms around in their head.
Once you accept that you should also accept that it contains Taylor series expansions for sine and cosine, which you also do not carry around in your head.
I recommend telling a physicist that you feel this way and seeing what they think about calculating machines.
No matter what way you run a math problem, the answer will be the same whether you use a calculator or work it out by hand. This is not the case with AI and the tasks it replaces.
There it is.