HaKatan: “The YU guy, on the other hand, “synthesizes” the two and calls them equals.” To quote Wikipedia, citation needed.
Find me a Frum YU guy who thinks that secular studies matter as much as Torah and, well, you’d be lying, because it doesn’t exist. There might be a number of YU guys who enjoy/care about their secular studies more, but they don’t think Torah’s not important. They just think it’s not for them. Which is not right, sure. But you won’t find a YU guy who thinks there is an equal or greater Mitzvah in learning secular studies than Torah. It doesn’t exist.