Goodpop, you hit the nail on the head. Short of time, and will take an entire book to be maarich on this point, or at least a separate thread which don’t have time for now.
Somehow, the yeshivishe velt got it into their heads that the more primitive one is, the more broken is his English, the poorer are his Math skills, and the more ignorant of science, then the more endeared he is to the RBSH. I personally believe the exact opposite. The Torah is sophisticated enough to stand up to any challenges, and its learners should be able to present impeccably in front of any audience on any learned topic. This is the kiddush hashem we aspire to, not making utter fools of ourselves when meeting people of other backgrounds and education. Instead of teaching our youth how to make a better impression, we tach them how to avoid other people by banning everything and anything that might lead to contact with another human outside the yeshivishe velt. Then we can keep going around feeling smug and arrogant about how great we are compared to all the others. (If you can’t beat ’em, run away and avoid all contact so you don’t have to confront reality.)
As far as the drashos you mention, I was just saying the exact same thing to some friends. The basic drasha is always “We see from the Torah the importance of learning Torah.” What I asked my friends was, isn’t this somewhat circular reasoning? Of course if one is learning Torah one is going to see the importance of learning Torah. What needs to be explained is how that will improve the world, and why someone who is not learning Torah might want to start learning Torah, and how does one inspire himself to accomplish great things, and why does Torah learning make one more of a mensch (not because the Torah says it does, but a real-life example.)
It is so tiring to keep hearing the same yeshivishe slogans thrown around time after time, without the slightest hesber, or attempt to make relevant, or taama dikra in the sense of the taste of the posuk. Torah can be made to taste great, but only when one realizes the greatness of the world and the briyos, as a whole. Then the Torah adds flavor to everything in the world.
I would like to say pshat in shelo bairchu batorah tchila, not as the yeshivishe velt says that they learned torah like any other chochma (Why in the world would a person learn Torah if they didn’t feel it was from the RBSH? It would otherwise be the most boring and irrelevant subject in the world. How many non-Jews would have the patience to study a blatt gemara anyway. What good would it do them?) Rather I think the pshat is shelo bairchu birchos hanehenin on the Torah. They didn’t get a geshmak from it, but only learned it for the mitzva or because it was the yeshivishe thing to do. It became a drudgery and a meaningless cult. If they realized what a treasure it was and how it makes one a better person in bein adam lachaveiro and increased his ahavas habriyos and his anivus and his connection with the RBSH, and how talmidei chachamim are marbim shalom baolam with their mido tovos towards all human beings, they would have been dancing over every blatt, not knocking those who aren’t members of their cult with their stupid meaningless gayvah and arrogance.
Just my take on things.