I think this is the same point your making, but you can help that person.
You can help them by understanding what you’re asking for when you’re designing and making sure that the value in the details is worth the cost/effort to manufacture.
It seems the overall lesson you learned is good, I can tell you that there are a lot of senior level designers out there that still haven’t learned this and it often shows in their work.
As you continue your career you’ll find even more value in this experience and maybe it might eventually move out of its current position as “the worst experience of your life” .
I had one basic class in college that covered materials and process but i threw myself in to the technical aspects of industrial design head first.
I read, visited factories and practiced practical skills in the shop and all of that gives me/you a huge advantage over those that don’t.
There could be a lot more of this taught in college courses but it’s also the kind of knowledge you can seek out and learn on your own.
This is probably why there is more emphasis on concept development and abstract thinking, those are things that you get to practice a lot less outside of the classroom. You can certainly use your abstract thinking and concept generation exercises in your design process and if you’re disciplined you can you can practice them outside of work but when it comes to real project timelines there are real constraints many of them defined by manufacturing. The more you can prepare for those constraints the more freedom you actually have.