Brute force techniques also work
Hierarchy is not necessary to think. Big Blue beat world chess master Gary Kasparov back in 1997 without chunking via sheer power and speed. Instead of simplifying the problem as human players do, it just tried thousands of potential moves, computed the possible outcomes and chose the best option. This is like running your pencil along the wall of a printed maze rather than looking to see which path leads to the center. With a lightning fast pencil, you might win.