Then you get paradoxes like why the rigor doesn't work in practice. These expensive CS books mathematically prove a map has faster access than a vector because it uses a binary tree. Yet the vector works faster because the CPU pipelines sequential operations very efficiently.

CS proves that a binary tree is faster asymptotically, and that’s still true and very much of practical relevance regardless of the CPU you use.

No, they don't. A vector has faster access than a binary tree, O(1) vs. O(log n). Maybe read some of those expensive books.

If you talk about editing the data structure, then it depends.