Dear Avira,
“Reines was a man full of fantasies if you read his post zionist writings; nor was he considered a gadol batorah by any stretch where his ideas can be reckoned with baaeli mesorah. Not only that, but where does reines say anything about there being other important things besides Torah or that secular studies are chas veshalom equal to it?”
Are you insane? Rav Reines was considered an equal gaon to anybody in Lita! Rav Chaim, the Rogotchover, Rav Meir Simcha, you name it. There were strong disagreements on a number of topics. He was so big that he single handily legitimized the entire Mizrachi Movement. What you read as fantasy, intelligent people read as hope. Rav Reines was as in tune to jewish suffering more than anybody. More than Rav Kook, more than the Bais Halevi.
This baalei mesorah idea hadn’t been invented yet. The yidden of Lita were still in Lita and were aware of all the battles with the non traditionalists and knew where why they disagreed with them. The same for every country besides for the melting pot of the New World. And the New Yishuv in the Old Yishuv. Those that knew the issues knew the nuance and were keenly aware how little difference there was between the two sides of most of the raging debates of the 19th century. There was a lot of mutual respect across the aisles up until our day.
Most of the chareidi world today, traces it’s roots back to the sides that lost on all the issues that were debated. Many debates, both sides lost. So, instead of giving lengthy history + hashkafa classes, they just say we followed our gadol and this is what happened and we must have won because we are still here. There isn’t any authenticity to this whole thing and you would be aware of that if your goal is the truth.