> what i mean, is focus first on how to use primitives and what they promise
These sorts of "provable security" textbooks (like the one in the article) try and do that. They emphasise less the exact inner workings of algorithms, and more on what they supposedly achieve. Various kinds of security proofs are possible. This school of thought in cryptography does also allow you to argue fairly convincingly that some concrete ciphers are secure. So it can talk about both the inner workings of ciphers as well as what security properties they achieve.
The "provable security" approach seems to be in line with your suggestion. In fact, it was the framework under which Zero Knowledge Proofs were developed. Not every cryptographer knows about that though, so I'm not sure if you were aware...
These sorts of "provable security" textbooks (like the one in the article) try and do that. They emphasise less the exact inner workings of algorithms, and more on what they supposedly achieve. Various kinds of security proofs are possible. This school of thought in cryptography does also allow you to argue fairly convincingly that some concrete ciphers are secure. So it can talk about both the inner workings of ciphers as well as what security properties they achieve.
The "provable security" approach seems to be in line with your suggestion. In fact, it was the framework under which Zero Knowledge Proofs were developed. Not every cryptographer knows about that though, so I'm not sure if you were aware...