There was a term on Earth called the "technological black box."
This concept was specifically used to describe technological products. The technology contained within a product was actually integrated into a framework. To those outside the framework, the things within it were as though locked inside a box. Users did not need to open the box to use the functions of the objects inside.
It was precisely because of this concept that Earthlings did not need to first learn computer code, logic diagrams, and various algorithms before using computers, much less master electromagnetism and materials science.
Because the world Shenzhou was locked within possessed the physical quantity known as "spiritual energy," the "black boxes" here were even larger than those in Earth's universe. Here, humans could use all manner of wondrous abilities even without understanding the essence of the world. Ancient Method Cultivators who did not understand the Way of Heaven and Earth could use divine powers and spells for the same reason.
If Earth technology served as an analogy, then for Shenzhou's immortal path, cultivation methods and spells were not theories, but core technologies.
If engineers wanted to master better technology, they had to study theory. Likewise, if cultivators wished to travel farther, they had to open the "black box" and comprehend the theories behind the cultivation methods' inner meaning.
The same computer produced utterly different results in the hands of a hacker and an ignorant layabout. Likewise, the power of a spell in the hands of a cultivator who understood the Way contained within it and in the hands of one who had cleverly grasped it through other axioms could not be spoken of in the same breath.
This was also the principle behind the Myriad Dharma Sect's "one method gives rise to ten thousand methods." On Earth,