Indeed, learning Pi does not take much time in our days. Still, it might have been an elevated subject at some point.
But this does not mean that we can’t find more complex issues, for example in social policy and in psychology. See, for example, lectures by Yisroel/ Robert Aumann, Noble in economics, where he connects his work in game theory with Gemora. Note one comes up in a month in Daf in Ketubos 93.
And yet another reason to know modern life is to be able to apply Jewish approach to modern problems, from personal behavior to society. This is what, presumably, learning Bavli gives us – a method to solve future problems. See, for example, work by Israeli Supreme Judge Moshe Elon, trying to apply halakha into modern Israeli British-Turkish legal system. Whether this was , or can be, successful, is not relevant here, but just the effort to compare multiple legal systems is fascinating.