MVC was a bad example imo. It's closer to trying to build something interesting without knowing what a conditional. It's possible, but why would you do it when they're so easy to learn? Scales are the same. It's not difficult to teach someone major and minor scales and have them go from there. You don't need to be able to play them flawlessly at 200bpm to be able to make something with them, but I think it's much easier to create knowing them than not knowing them.