DY:
You wrote: “That’s wonderful, but a very small minority. In general, the learning of one immersed in it יומם ולילה is of a higher quality than one who isn’t, and the gemara clearly places a priority on higher quality learning, your politically correct stance notwithstanding.”
You gotta know that this is pure baloney. I don’t know numbers for the מחברי ספרים that I mentioned, but that is not the point either. It’s about people using the abilities they were Divinely gifted. The יומם ולילה issue is the mitzvah (not in Chumash but in the beginning of ספר יהושע), and this includes implementation as well as the actual limud. I refer you back to the quote from the gemora in ברכות דף לו where it notes that הרבה עשו כרשב”י ולא עלתה בידם, as they were outside of their true mission. review that with the meforshim, and we can discuss this further. You cannot address the “quality” of one’s learning by talking quantity. They are not the same.
I have zero regard for the PC approach. I am practical. Someone gifted with drawing skills should utilize them for Kiddush Hashem. How? Perhaps safrus, perhaps art work that advances Kiddush Shem Shomayim, maybe something else. No one is minimizing learning. All I am saying is that the universal full-time learning is a myth. It is great for some, and an exercise of failure for others. And quantity doesn’t equal quality.