the pilpul learning done nowadays in most yeshivas (at least in america) is very entertaining but not how learning was historically done. all those mnemonics you see all over shas are there because the whole point of learning was to remember it – not necessarily dissect it and forget it like is done today.
On the other hand, all the pilpul discussions done in shas (is aish mshum mamon or cheitz, is the reason for b’fanai nechtav unechtam because of l’shmah or m’zuyaf, etc) show that the whole point is to understand.
But I suppose it makes sense that if you never tried to understnad anything you learned, you might make the mistake of ignoring the entire corpus of shas and focusing on the mnemonic devices that appear every 20 or 30 blatt.