The address exactly how you say deep learning should be taught in the course overview video. They aren't against learning all the maths, they just don't think you should do it first.

It's a top-down vs bottom-up teaching approach. The advantages are better motivation, better context and more immediate usefulness.

> All of that is guesswork if you don't understand what the CNN is doing at each stage.

Pff, it's still mostly guesswork even if you do understand what it is doing.