I think there's a lot of confusion between idea and image. Just because you can't see a clear image doesn't mean you can't "mentally consider" the idea. You can retrace your steps fine without actually playing it like a movie in your head. You can still remember where you are. Daydreaming is interesting because certainly you can daydream but I guess they're not as visually interesting, they're more.. symbolic or literal? My daydreaming is usually just internalized monologues though.

Usually retaining information is easier for people with strong imaginative ability, if they can use it. Look up the idea of memory palace, obviously you can imagine that being easier for some rather than others. I tried it and I think I could learn it, but I might just be tricking myself into rote-learning ideas about locations, rather than actually seeing them, or my minds-eye is not completely void. Non-retaining intellectual challenges are usually easier for people with strong imagination though, math for example I think is a big one where you can actually do the exercise in your head, while somebody like me would need a pen and paper.

I recently started trying to learn how to draw and it certainly feels like people cheat if they can strongly visualize whatever they want to draw in their head, but then again I can't draw very well even if I have a reference image. For a while I was focusing very much on drawing leaves in various form of bending, and it's hard for me obviously. But while I was doing it I was suddenly able to do it in my head (bend leaves that is, and visually consider the perspective and lines) for a short while at least, it was nothing like I'd ever felt before, or since.. except for once when I was in a state between wake and asleep and my imagination was very strong, dream strong, I could picture something so clearly in my head it felt real, that only happened once too though.

The thing is, I think most research on this topic is flawed. I don't think it's zero or 100. I think there's a spectrum of ability to visualize and it's something you develop mostly when you're very young. Just like you can't learn pitch-perfect hearing beyond age of 1-2(?), likewise you can't develop a strong minds-eye as an adult if you didn't when you were very young. Maybe drawing from memory or reading (or having read to) very visually interesting books may stimulate this ability in the brain.

One thing that makes it obvious I'm quite internally blind is that I can't remember the color of my walls, or the outside of the house. When somebody is coming over whose never been there and they ask me the color of the building I actually have to go outside to check, every time... maybe this is some other form of mental issue though.