Well you can learn the concepts. With HSC Chemistry you can leave the rote learning until getting ready for the final exams in the month lead up where there are stuff you inevitably will have to remember. You may have a bit of rote here and there for when you do class assessments too. However you can do the alternative and rote your way through the whole course. However that's not a good idea and leaves big gaps in knowledge.
He never said that HSC spoon feeds. He said that students can choose whether to spoon feed or do their own work/research.
You can choose to do either one. Either way, for uni you will not be spoon fed anything.
As an example, for HSC Chemistry I was spoon fed, but for HSC Physics I had to do all my work from scratch.
In the end I did better in Physics considerably (4 marks is quite large in the top end). Reason why is because I could make my own research and did not become complacent with it. In Chemistry there were times where I was getting complacent because we were spoon fed and I didn't bother with doing much work at home.
Well in uni things get different because ultimately you get a job which is related to real life and hence you have to apply the theory.
However, HSC Chemistry does have some real life applications in it. Same with HSC Physics. You just aren't being creative enough I'm afraid.
I mean come on, we made our own soap, you actually learn how soap works, how water interacts with things, etc which are all applicable to real life if you think hard enough. Even the way car engines work is an application of HSC Chemistry, but you have to be creative about it as shown here:
http://community.boredofstudies.org/17/chemistry/315655/extracurricular-topics.html#post6491486
Likewise for Physics, you can do heaps of things. We found a way to simulate the photoelectric effect using an old 15 year old radio/cassette player (the big boom boxes lol) and an induction coil with a gap between two electrodes. Worked like a charm.
You may feel that HSC courses don't have enough application, but you need a solid foundation first. If you don't have a solid foundation, then how can you expect to understand what is going on in the applications?
Give it time and you will get there. There will be a time where you are thankful for having learnt the foundations, because its going to be in handy in the future for many things.