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I lived on an island in the North Pacific for years. I worked on the ocean in a floating house and working on aluminum catwalks a few feet above the water all day.
If course I don't know how to swim. If I don't have a floater coat on, I'm fucked. If I do, I bob and hope for rescue. But have your lines in place if you're out in weather because the ocean does not give a fuck. In the North Pacific, your lifespan is the water is measured in "well fuck"s.
I lived near a lake as a child. I could hold my breath for so long. I dove a lot. Never learned to swim.
Swim lessons were expensive and we were poor. Swimming is essentially a pastime of the privileged and we were not. Same with skiing. Same with hockey and football.
Meh.
I was sort of with you on the ocean stuff, swimming there isn't really a substitute for a lifejacket, but swimming being for the privileged is a weird take.
If you don't have access to a body of water for free, then public pools are usually cheaper than a movie ticket. You don't need any equipment, all you need is one person that kinda half way knows how to swim and is willing to point you in the right direction.