yankel, a great point about Rambam.
So, a similar approach can be applied to non-religious Zionists (not RZ as you say): those were people who grew in the middle of assimilation, and, instead of fighting for “better world” in Russia and Germany like many other Jews did – they directed their efforts to help their Jewish brothers. Take Hertzl, for example. He is a pure tinok shenishba, grew up totally assimilated. In our times, he might have walked into a chabad house on campus and would be dancing for Moschiach right now. But there was no Chabad house in Vienna …
So, were RZ wrong when looking with such redeeming attitude towards non-religious Zionists? I don’t think there is no clear right or wrong here. Depends on a person, it is one or another, and in some middle cases, both attitudes may be legitimate. I suspect the hardened attitudes pro- and contra- go back to European scene where there was a political fight between different groups – and we inherited those attitudes even if there is no good reason for us to fight about it.