Just out of idle curiosity. I went to music school and teach at a local music shop, so I’m very familiar with music theory but I’m aware that my experience is most likely not the norm.
If you are familiar with any theory (even just scales and keys), where did you pick it up? Lots of the resources I’ve seen both in and outside of formal education can be both confusing, and it’s often hard to see the application of what you learn in the short term.
I learned roman numeral analysis in school, but over the past few years of playing jazz, that all gets thrown out the window, as it’s too unrestricted and impossible to analyze mid-flow anyway. It’s better to find the music you like, listen to it and play it over and over, and you will end up absorbing and repeating it.
Music theory is to music what grammar or linguistic theory is to language: not necessary to speak it, and would just slow down the flow of something that’s too complex to think through.