Minecraft as a learning tool - actually works?

Started letting my 9yo play Minecraft in Creative mode and he's legitimately learned some stuff - spatial reasoning, basic planning, how to use tutorials. But I also see posts online saying it's 'unstructured' and worried I'm just letting him game and calling it learning. Is there actually educational value here or am I rationalizing screen time? He's limiting himself to like 45 mins before asking to do something else which seems... healthy? Mixed signals everywhere.