> most math exam questions, whether in elementary school, high school or in university, are “follow the rules” problems.
this is what counts as math in many places, but that is not what math is.
My personal theory is that after Russkies sent Sputnik, US understood that we can lose the technology race to future missiles just with lawyers, so math was immediately introduced at all levels. Unfortunately, Khan Academy was not there yet, so who were the teachers in all these new classes? Same English teachers and unsuccessful lawyers. This generated a huge wave of people hating math teaching children hating math, and this became the mesorah. This is, l’havdil’ what happens when Jewish community grows, b’H so fast that not-very-educated teachers propagate through educational system, leading to higher minimal level, but not much at higher level.