jf: “Spiritual fulfillment” in Judaism is not based upon personal feelings.
Sam: I figured out late what kind of shul “balconies” you were referring to. The ones I’m used to seeing are almost fully enclosed and don’t have an opening allowing the women to peek into the men’s section unless it is deliberately opened during appropriate times. (Hence it is opened on S”T for the hakafos but closed between each hakafa at the beginning and closed for leining.) I did see the open kind you’re referring to a few times in, if I recall, old American shuls (on weekdays when there were no women in attendance, hence the lack of a major impression). I’ve not often seen them, though I’ve been around the block and seen quite a few Orthodox shuls, and the few I’ve seen seem to generally be old big shuls whose membership declined with shifting demographics and certainly are more ‘modern’ oriented congregations. So, yes,the kind you refer to would allow the ladies to see the open Torah and obviously those shuls have no objection to that. But the shuls with such open balconies are a very small percent of Orthodox shuls (counting by number of shuls or by number of congregants).