I've read the book and it is theory laden. Some of it takes second readings to wrap your head around the authors' mindset. The title, Applied Mathematics for Database Professionals, sums it up - dB PROFESSIONALS.
In this case I choose to view professionals as individuals determined to know their craft and focused on continuous improvement. de Haan and Koppelaars provide an excellent treatise on Set Theory with a goal of using it to perform dB design and, as it says on the cover, "communicate precisely about those designs with other stakeholders.".
This is the sort of book that can take an accidental DBA from thinking of SQL as merely a series of Excel rows and columns to seeing just how complicated - yet simple - the reality is.
As for the average dB Pro requiring Hawkins-level mathematics skill... generally - no.
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