Avira,
ok, seems we do not disagree much. I would like to mention one point though – your usage of Reform, etc as a warning. We need to maneuver carefully when encountering threats – Hellenism, Islam, Haskala, Communism … On one hand, the approach of keeping away from the threat worked many times at the time of encounter On the other hand, long-term we need not to get carried away and modify Yehadut in opposition to the threats long-gone. We are not stopping learning Humash because of Tzdukim … but we did stop reading ten commandments …
If Reform abused tikun olam, does not mean that we should ignore bein adam l’havero and push and shove each other on the way to a “mitzvah”. Secular studies were strongly associated with non-religious lifestyle at some point, and this now prevents people from getting honorable professions. Maybe Rambam’s/Aristotle’s halakhot deot applies here: community, as a person, needs to generally keep a middle path, but should deviate to compensate for a trend. As with a skidding car or a stable inflation rate, applying such controls inappropriately may end up in a ditch on a left or on a right side (or inflation/deflation), thus a need to see big picture where we are and which way we are moving. Maybe second derivative also.
As to learning psak v. meta-learning, my Lakewood Teacher explained 1/3 humash/mishna/gemora as applying to total learning, so at some point one needs to learn more of the gemora (reasoning behind laws, rather than just laws) as it is a much bigger field. Hate to bring covid here, but it aptly demonstrates that modern life brings new issues very fast comparing with cneturies ago where drastic changes were relative rare. So, ability of the community to adapt is even more important.