To me, the way the Babylonians worded their algebraic expressions was confusing and hard to understand right away. However, even though the wording is lightly different from our modern ways, I see some familiarity in how they use words in math. In high school, when we learn different algebraic expressions and inequalities, we also learn how to describe them in words. These could be things like:
"1/5 of a number is smaller than 6 multiplied by the sum of another number and 2"
and we would be expected to rewrite them algebraically (i.e., x/5 < 6(y+2)).
Sometimes the textbooks and workbooks would try to trick us with the difficult wordings. I didn't realize this connection until learning about Babylonian math, and this would definitely be something that I can incorporate in my classroom as a little fun fact.
Notations are very powerful tools, when it comes to abstractions. I agree that math is about generalization and abstraction, since modern day math uses symbols and variables to help us understand concepts that go beyond what we can do, such as using invariants to classify knots in knot theory, so we can keep track of the relations between them. Words are helpful for specific examples, but notations and symbols can further support a universal generalization that is precise.
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