Just Emes : your comments are commendable but allow me to point out that you ignore many sources for this discussion, which might change many of your assumptions. I will only comment on a couple of your points:
1)you write (2) that the temptations of previous generations during work was NOT as intense as now. Not true. Every generation has its own “nisyionos”. Do you realize how difficult it was to keep shabbos in the US in the early part of the past century? Do you know how difficult it was to get jobs in the nineteenth century unless you declared yourself (chas vesholom) A X-ian? today’s generations have their own nisyonos but don’t underestimate what our ancestors went through.
2) Possibly, after the war and its fearful destruction, there was an argument to develop the Poskim of the new generation (1). We are well beyond that and ,nowadays, it has become a major burden, rather than a mission.
3) Permanent learning is for individuals and not for the klal. This is undisputed by all Poskim, not only a majority (3).