I wouldn’t agree with that. Memorising openings is something you do so that you don’t have to repeatedly calculate every tactic in a position, and to help you reach a favourable mid game
Besides, once you get into the middlegame, you still need the tactical and positional skills that I suspect you consider opening knowledge a crutch for
In chess (and life) it’s far easier to pattern match a solution for a position rather than coming up with a brand new solution every time
In my opinion, this makes memory and experience far more important than intellect in chess, especially in the faster time formats
Besides, once you get into the middlegame, you still need the tactical and positional skills that I suspect you consider opening knowledge a crutch for
In chess (and life) it’s far easier to pattern match a solution for a position rather than coming up with a brand new solution every time
In my opinion, this makes memory and experience far more important than intellect in chess, especially in the faster time formats