I don’t need to use algebra. I believe virtually everyone needs to understand, to some degree, algebra, calculus and trig and statistics so that they can grasp that there are tools to do difficult things. I have heard many people, and a few of them on FR, who dismiss any report or finding they cannot understand. The supposition apparently is that, if the reader can’t understand it, no one can.
A valid purpose to algebra, calculus and trig is to instill some humility into the math impaired
I've got an early 60's edition of The American Practical Navigator. It amazes me that one young man, Nathanial Bowditch, wrote this book in the late 18th Century and helped to make America a Sea Power.
I read through parts of it from time to time and every once in a great while will have a mathematical revelation. The other 99% of the time I put it down utterly frustrated at my inability to comprehend it.