“he would have agreed in a different era”
Thats my point. Things change in different eras.
“That is still not aggada”
Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, the Ramchal, discusses this two-tiered, literal-allegorical mode of transmission of the Aggadah in his well known Discourse on the Haggadot. He explains that the Oral Law, in fact, comprises two components: the legal component (??? ??????), discussing the mitzvot and halakha; and “the secret” component (??? ??????), discussing the deeper teachings. The aggadah, along with the Kabbalah, falls under the latter. The rabbis of the Mishnaic era believed that it would be dangerous to record the deeper teachings in explicit, mishnah-like, medium. Rather, they would be conveyed in a “concealed mode” and via “paradoxes”. (Due to their value, these teachings should not become accessible to those “of bad character” and due to their depth they should not be made available to those “not schooled in the ways of analysis”.) This mode of the transmission was nevertheless based on consistent rules and principles such that those “equipped with the keys” would be able to unlock their meaning; to others they would appear as non-rational or fantastic.