yyyes, sort of---but when someone says that their, I dunno, Erector set taught them about careful engineering and design, we don't tend to say "this is entirely about a very bright little boy (or girl) and not at all about Erector sets". Is that because construction sets tend to be more associated with boys? Almost any time I see a comment of the form "X taught me about Y when I was little", it usually really means "I was inspired to discover Y by some feature of X", not so much that X was an edutainment toy designed to teach Y.

So why not X=My Little Pony?

I don't think recursive braiding of hair is ever something that's been suggested by My Little Pony toys in the same way construction is encouraged by Lego.