I think what is really meant is science literacy. You need some sort of context to be able to understand the meaning of resistance, polarity, serial vs. parallel etc. It isn't that hard of course, but when there is maybe a hundred different things you can't purely memorize them all and expect to be efficient, especially not when things change.
That said, basic physics in bloody useful as well. I was always a shitty student, but I am constantly surprised people can't even figure out that they need to use physics to know certain things. In contrast with things like economics, physics is actually quite forgiving for the layperson when it comes to casual discussions about e.g. transportation.
It was stupid on my part, but I remember being surprised in an undergrad Physics I lab when our inclined plane motion experiment matched predicted results so accurately.
I went to a decent high school with science labs, but most knowledge seemed so abstract. How often do you do accurate chemistry in everyday life?
Classical mechanics, on the other hand, is most of life. Everything moves. And it felt pretty magical that suddenly I had math that could predict the future.
That said, basic physics in bloody useful as well. I was always a shitty student, but I am constantly surprised people can't even figure out that they need to use physics to know certain things. In contrast with things like economics, physics is actually quite forgiving for the layperson when it comes to casual discussions about e.g. transportation.