Halevi…where does the steipler say that? He refers to religious zionism as a “deah kozeves” in kiryana d’igrasa, and expressed anti zionism elsewhere. His son, rav chaim, wrote that the state is not a legitimate country and people are therefore exempt from following its laws or paying taxes if they can get away with it.
I think you’re mixing up “it’s ok bedieved” with “let’s work with it bedieved”, because indeed the majority opinion was that it was a mitzvah or at least allowed to cooperate with the government and even join it for the toeles hatzibur and to minimize the damage that the zionists can do (moreso the latter). On that issue, it was basically the Hungarian gedolim and the Eidah which held not to, and everyone else held you could/should.