Understanding calculus helps you understand much more deeply than you could have grasped form just learning algebra what kinds of numerical relationship problems it is possible to actually figure out. Ideally you also need some infinite series, some linear algebra, some combinatorics, and an appreciation of complex numbers as well, so the absence of deep coverage of those from a typical high school math curriculum in favor of putting calculus on a pedestal is more annoying.

But the idea that if you know how the rate of change of a thing changes over time, that that gives you enough information to understand it completely? That’s pretty important and deep.