Did you go to school in the US in the last 2-3 decades?

No, the UK. But completing the square only takes a minute.

Try completing the square when the coefficients are variables :)

Once you start calculus they let you use a real calculator

That may be true, but in the US there are typically math courses before calculus.

But then we get a calculator.

Even then, it is typically not a symbolic calculator so if your answer is a closed form function of variables, you're SOL with a TI-84.

Maybe we went to radically different schools but I certainly had to calculate by hand using the quadratic formula countless times where calculators were not allowed to be used.

Anyway it distracts from the point so it's not relevant.