> And then you turn to someone with expertise on the subject or obtain the expertise.

I think that it's possible and even reasonable to understand the fundamentals a couple of levels of abstraction either direction from your area of expertise.

In the cases where that's not enough, it's still very useful in helping you interact with someone who has relevant expertise.

Exactly. Low level knowledge is nice to have in some situations, but is for the most part not required to accomplish a lot because high level knowledge and tools are often sufficient.