I think in a basic survival situation where cooking is the thing you to survive, any functioning human would (probably) be able to cook something. Even if they burned it to the point of lowering the gained calories a notable degree, there would still be something “safe” to eat in it. But I do understand what you mean with you swimming example.

I’ve known people to be taken advantage of by shops because they never learned basic maintenance of the thing they use everyday. Or sell scrap/vehicles because they felt they had no other options for a massive loss.