It does, but it can be proved, even without counting, and you can't even ask the question unless you know what "+" means. That must be defined. I've done the proof, although I'm not sure I could do it cold, today. That was in 1975, when I was in a "Foundations of mathematics" class with a bunch of education students. I had fun, they suffered from badly blown minds. :) My wife had taken a similar class a few years earlier, at a different school. She liked hers too, and she was an education student at the time, and is now Chair of a Teacher Education department at a small college. Needless to say, she teaches the "Teaching Mathematics" courses. And makes her students like it too. She's good, very good.
"2 + 2 does equal 4, even if nobody knew how to add"
"It does, but it can be proved, even without counting..."
And again, the premise isn't about how you prove it or if you prove it. I'm only asking for an acknowledgement of the simple concept that the fact exists on its own, whether anyone proves it or not.