ZD – even if what you are saying is true (about Chareidim today being different than in the 17th century), I don’t think that what you are talking about is necessarily relevant to this discussion.
I think that when people talk about Chareidim being a new movement they are comparing Chareidim to Dati-Leumi and saying that Dati-Leumi is the regular way to be Frum and Chareidim is a new movement that sprung up. In reality, Dati-Leumi is a new movement, and Chareidi refers to people who are not part of this new movement.
Also, the changes that you are talking about (if in fact there were such changes) took place before the dati-leumi movement started. So the dati-leumi people started out as Chareidim.