I dont have the time or koach to address each point, but one thing that keeps coming up that needs addressing –
learning ‘only’ 8 blatt or wa’ever, as if it’s too little.
I am not condoning this and there is certainly room for improvement in that area, Rav Shach spoke about it a lot and so did other Roshei Yeshiva
BUT
the way the baalei batim and others look at the ‘problem’ they are not seeing the issue with the same view as Rav Shach and the others.
A bochur or Yunerman who learns only 1 daf over two weeks is not stuttering, he is not checking the Artscroll for the translation (or transliteration) of every word, and he is not wasting time either.
He is carefully being madayek every word, contempalting every sevoro, and getting clarity in umpteen shitos, delving into the Rashi, the Tosafos, the Rashba, the Ritvo, the Ketzos, the Nesivos, the Shmayste, Rev Akiva Eiger, R’ Boruch Ber, Reb Chaim and the Brisker Rov etc. etc. (do you really want me to write another 20 names?)
He comes out with chiddushim based on nuance in the Rambam, he comes up with three tirutzim to the Ran’s kasha, and with a different Halachic ramification to each answer. He gets the the root of the sugya and does not just ‘read it superficially’.
At the end of the day (or zman) they are specialists, in the sugya that they learnt. No one would have any qualms about a professor who spent 20 years analyzing a specific enzyme or a strain of cancer.
No one complains that the doctors dont know mathematics, and no one expects a skin doctor to be knowledgable about heart diseases. Todays doctors all specialize in their specific fields, and so do the yungerleit. It is oftten more beneficial to be more focused on less subjects, and to get more of an encyclopedic knowledge of one subject, than to be a jack-of-all-trades and master-of-none.
It’s a decision that only the ones involved (aforementioned Roshei Yeshiva) who could decide how much bekius versus how much iyun.
Even the most basic learner knows a fantastic array of subjects, from Shtoros to Eidim, to Gittin and Kiddushin, to Kinyonim, Shevuos, Nedarim, etc. etc. etc. etc.
So yes, he might be clueless about the milky spoon, but he is not ignorant.
Also, his years of learning give him the keilim to know how to go about asking a shaila, looking it up, what to ask, and the ability to get into the sugya. They can apprecaite what is a machlokes, and the whose who, how to dissect a nosei and how to be machria.
All the above is true, but BESIDES all that, is the main fact. Learning Torah is the highest mitzva and should be done at every available minute, second and moment.
This is not a machlokes haposkim or even depending on Hashkofos – this is universally accepted.
The only room for discussion is the definition of ‘available’.
A working man who has a day off is 100% obligated to spend that day learning. If his responiblities do not require him to work, he is not potur from Talmud Torah just because he is not a learning person. He might not be capable of learning gemora, or not for 12 hours straight. But he has to learn. kitzur Shulchan Oruch, Chumash rashi, Shanyim Mikra, sifrei mussar, nach, ein yakov etc. etc. He could use english seforim, listen to shiurim, the choice is his, but he must learn.
Of course, at the point when health (mental of physical) does not allow, one may pause. If family obligations, or other issues do not allow, one is not expected to learn, but the rule learn, everything else are the exceptions to the rule.
Even is ones mental capabilities only allow for repeating the same posuk countless times, one is doing the mitzva – the greatest mitzva – with every word.
If someone dedicated his life to bringing korbonos in the Beis Hamikdash, he is the ‘PA’ of Hashem, every would understand that he is doing something amazing with his life. Learning torah, even if one retains nothing whatsoever, is better than bringing korbonos.
Chazal are full of what Torah does for the neshomo, how much it supports the world, how much shefa it brings to all the oilomois.
OK, i’d better stop here or i’ll go on forever….