Sometimes I have to shake my head a little.
Back when, we had to commit to memory the data relevant to the current Type; ie pitch, thrust for altitude and configuration to achieve a speed which was associated with a climb or descent rate. This didn't require memorising books full of numbers but one did need to commit a few useful combinations to memory.
For newbies (eg cadet pilots at around the 200 hour mark converting onto the 737), and knowing that they probably would never have the exposure opportunity again, I used to get them to fly a single pilot circuit towards the end of the endorsement program - raw data, failed pitot statics, low cloud and vis for a recovery via an ILS. I can't recall that anyone ever had a major problem - OK many were not pretty to watch but they got the aircraft back onto the runway in a reasonably satisfactory manner - some did superbly proficient jobs of the task.
This was just a skills exercise which probably would never arise on the line. However, the student confidence building value and confirmation to me as the instructor that they had a reasonably sound grip of the I/F basics at that stage were sufficient justification to me for the time spent. I always thought it unfortunate that, other than for very low time pilots coming onto their first airline jet, the endorsement program hours/sessions were too tightly constrained to permit such sideline exercises.
SOP procedures aside, is it too difficult to commit a few number combinations to memory to save your tail in extremis ?