I also see it like this. Counting and simple sums should not be a problem, even to high numbers. But higher maths is quite a different matter. To our schooled mind, multiplication does not seem to be that much more complicated, than sums - in principle. But then again, building the factorial is only the next "simple" step...
When I once read "The Long Ships" by Frans Bengtsson (a must-read for
the Viking interested!) I had so much fun considering this incident,
when the English king wanted to pay the raiders, instead of having his
country and people given to cruelty. And they bargained for so much for
a simple man, so much for a ship master, so much for a chief, and so on,
and they could not calculate it!! And this even though the Vikings were
merchants as well. The clergy (early Christians) had to do it, and even
they had their difficult time with it!
Soon later, the "new" architects of the medieval age came, and were
successful. Again: counting is one thing, but having a grasp of, say,
how much weight is a stone block of so much length, height and width, is
a completely different matter! So easy for a young pupil nowadays!
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