same question: I want to able hack/modify/change a car to high performance car. do I need to understand how it work?
how does an engine work? what kind of parts I need?
I think you should understand how does cpu and memory work.
how does network work. how does cryptography work. what kind of tools able hack.
I used Linux/Apache/PHP/MySQL over 16 years and while changed 5 jobs.
I am still learning new programming languages(swift) or some programming languages I have not learnt yet like embedded C.
that is true if you can master one programming language then you can easier to pickup difference programming languages.
Thanks for C language and Pascal that basic concept i learnt from high school.