alt Hacker NewsFor all other languages, that is, naturally spoken languages, I would totally agree. You learn them by imersing yourself in the language, culture, country.
But latin is a dead language. What you describe is what it is used for. It is a grammar exercise.
The kind of work Latinists do also require a high degree of expertise in grammatical nuances. Latin isn't taught for the sake of reading modern works translated into Latin.