Every town has fire but they don't understand its chemistry. Every town has someone who can bake but they don't understand why yeast works (it wasn't identified as a fungus until the 1800's). People used the north star for navigation when they thought the world was flat and when they had no idea what stars actually were. You don't need to understand the underlying mechanics to use things, and for most of history people didn't. Scientific understanding is an anachronism in a fantasy setting. That's fine if it's the kind of setting you want to run, but it's absolutely not necessary, and it's certainly not medieval.
I agree, but that's not what I was saying. I'm saying that if magic use is as common as blacksmithing, then understanding of how it works, to the level typical of a journeyman or master blacksmith, should likewise be as common as such understanding is among blacksmiths. As I said in an earlier post,
"I have no idea what his formal knowledge of physics and metallurgy was, if any. But I am quite certain that there were techniques he used that were based on principles of physics and metallurgy, whether he was consciously aware of those principles or not. Maybe it was just along the lines of "If it's _____ color, it's ready to beat out. If it's _____ color, it's too hot, beating it out will cause _____ problem," etc. The point is that you at least have to know
how it works, even if you don't know
why it works."
The difference is that if the guy who plays the blacksmith wants to know something of how his character's skill works, he has endless amount of information that he can look up. The guy who plays the spellcaster, often as not, can either 1) make it up himself, 2) get the GM to make it up for him, or 3) suck it up.
My knowledge of sailing has made a life or death difference in a game more than once. Spellcasters don't get that option.
Seems to me their is an opportunity for someone to write and pitch a supplement with alternate ways magic could work in Rolemaster.
So far, it doesn't look to me like there's any market for it. I'm seeing more pushback than support.