Honestly man, I can handle math without issues. Differential equations are no big deal. But if you ask me to design a workflow, I'm going to give you the blankest stare ever because I don't even have a clue where to start. I can probably kludge something together based on how I could see someone else using the product, but in all likelihood, I'm just training myself to do it the way that's most natural for whatever I'm building.

Empathy is one piece of design. But if you can't visualize different modes of operation, you can't choose the most empathetic one. I suspect the real issue is that people with both deep technology and ux skills are rare. They require you to keep two entirely different problem spaces in your head and explore them together.