Dear Simple,
Thank you for the info on CC.
I think what we choose to identify with is not a metzius. It is an indication of a metzius. When there is a change that takes the essence out, and only the shell remains, than the levush becomes the actual metzius, because nothing else remains to be more real than the levush.
I meant to say that levush works as a significant factor, when there are very little other factors to compete with. One who is sitting by his gemara day and night, does not the white shirt to mark him as a yeshiva guy. One who cannot sit by a gemara at all, will not be marked as a yeshiva guy even with a white shirt.