It is simply a way of performing multiplication without requiring a positional notation system. If you don't have that this allows you to do multiplication of very large numbers assuming you can divide and multiply by 2. You could do this on paper but usually you would have objects that would represent number units used in the culture such as 50,10,5,1 etc. So your objection that you might as well count them out is simply not true, this method is faster than what you suggested.

>>Reality doesn't always conform to the PC narrative of how all civilizations are equal. Unless you are a sociology major that is.

I'm not sure what your point is. True positional numerals have a long cultural history that doesn't lend itself easily to an analysis of which culture performed math better.