I think it's very contentious to some people (though I agree that at this stage, ML == mathematics).

I've read quite a few people on the internet who will swear up and down you don't need the mathematics to apply basic models to business problems. I disagree, and I kind of find it weird to divorce the mathematics from it.

yes and no. Of course it is absurd to claim you don't need math. On the other hand, I think it is sometimes exaggerated. You'll see this tutorials, that are thorough linear algebra primers and claim that you need it for ML, when in fact you'd only need it to get a thorough understanding of the inner workings. On the other hand, I have seen highly educated math experts pretty much fail to understand, that a L2 norm isn't the best loss function for a business context where a deviation from the truth actually means linear costs. So I'd argue being able to map business problems into the shallow math domain is much more important, than mastering the deep math domain.