Joseph- And while I do believe those who learn Torah contribute more to the protection of EY then the army does, that doesn’t mean they are owed more hakaras hatov for the simple reason that they risk far less to learn that Torah. Their lives aren’t at risk in the same way that a soldier’s is on the front lines even if their contribution is greater. So yes, they each owe each other hakaras hatov, but a Charedi arguably owes a soldier more hakaras hatov, and just because a soldier fails to show hakaras hatov, it doesn’t mean that a Charedi is exempt from it either.
The same is true for money from the government. Just like kollelim show hakaras hatov to those who donate large sums of money and don’t rely on “well, our limud Torah is the greatest hakaras hatov to our benefactors so therefore we don’t owe them any additional hakaras hatov”, Charedim should show that same amount of hakaras hatov to the medinah who gives them a tremendous amount of money. And if a benefactor gave a lot of money to a mesivta and didn’t express hakaras hatov to the mesivta for learning Torah, that doesn’t exempt the mesivta for expressing hakaras hatov to the benefactor who gave them money.