Most jobs in the real world don’t benefit from social cleverness. They don’t even offer the opportunity to schmooze with the boss. They are: “Drive this exact route and deliver boxes, within a time precision of plus or minus 30 seconds.” and “Repeat this physical motion on this part 7000 times while keeping yield over 99%.” and “Ensure TPS reports are filled out exactly using the correct template and are on Lumbergh’s desk every Friday morning 8:30.” I would argue the repetition, rule-following and drudgery of school adequately prepares workers for this adulthood.
First, I don't believe you're correct about social cleverness not helping drivers, line workers, or office drones. If anything, the more basic the work, the bigger the rewards for social cleverness are, as you use your relationship with your superiors, peers, and inferiors to influence the work day. (This could be becoming less true with fully metrics-driven establishments like Amazon warehouses.)
Second, is that society (where a huge number of people are consigned to that type of labor) a society that you're interested in continuing to build? If so, continue to support the methods used in modern school.
