I didn’t read it that way.
I read it that if a Yeshiva bochur (who obvious studies) walked around, esp in Israel, with a smaller brim, then he could tan easily and quickly (like just the walk to shul in the sun) and thus no one would believe that he spends all day studying.
But now that I read it the way that you thought that it was, it’s like that picture with the Vase and the Two Faces.
I only saw a Vase. But then someone points out the Two Faces. Life is never the same afterward.