> what is the point of teaching anyway when fundational knowledge are becoming obsolete?

1. It isn't

2. As you acknowledge, you need some 'foundational grounding', but the amount needed is quite a lot

3. The best way to teach metacognitive (and all other) skills is within a context

> the balance shifts from memorization to retrieval, iteration, verification

This has been trumpeted with every poorly-thought-out educational change, and it's a marker of unfamiliarity with the space. Memorisation hasn't been the focus ever; it's always about the other skills, and (some) memorisation is useful as part of that.