Nice writing!

However, all those universal templates are not always applicable or desirable. For example, for quantum world reality Greek statue may very well be in every room of the house.

It's only part of the problem to deal in the symbolic manipulation domain. It's equally important to make equation match the problem first.

In that sense AI approach does not assume anything. In scientific research common sense is not always a friend.

Also, "learning" also depends on the point of view. Perhaps, those who did not learn simply do not have their descents among us today. That allowed us to have certain patterns "readily". I guess AI folks also do selection work for their models. And transfer learning is another tool in machine learning field.