Dunno. I went to two EE schools, and in many classes teachers stressed that to get results we need to make assumptions that are only partially true, to approximate, to skip over [irrelevant] details, etc. And this was very deliberate and stated upfront.

And, I still like to nitpick. :) Hmm. Maybe it's because you have to be aware of the details/limits to be able to figure out what approximations and simplifications are reasonable.

Maybe that's where the value of nitpicky mindframe lies.