It all depends on how you define computer science vs computer engineering. In all my CS classes, not once did I need to deal with pointer arithmetic or memory layout. That's because my CS classes were all theoretical, concerning pseudocode and algorithmic complexity. Mapping the pseudocode onto actual hardware was never a consideration.

In contrast, there was hardly ever a computer engineering class where I could ignore raw memory addresses. Whether it was about optimizing a memory structure for cache layout or implementing some algorithm efficiently on a resource-anemic (mmu-less) microcontroller, memory usage was never automatic.

I thought you meant untyped ones. Afaik most algorithms and data structures use typed pointers. Ofc low level computer engineering stuff uses untyped pointers. That indeed touches the point of the neighbour comment, to me this is computer engineering, not computer science, but reasonable minds may disagree

>and then access the data at that location

Or many other locations, by many other authors, at many other times, or simultaneously.

I think Java pointers wouldn't count as raw pointers despite having many similar characteristics.