This is the thing. You need to invest not only in completely understanding how every aspect of material design works, you also have to understand that visual languages enforce strong opinion and aren't an expression of creative freedom.

So if you understand it well enough and if you have enough weight to ensure what you are designing fits into it then it might work for you and your users.

It seems to mostly be used like bootstrap thought and ends up being tedious and inconsistent. The worst kind of inconsistent as well, the one where you are mislead by familiarity that then doesn't turn out to be real.