SJS–I find your question to be engaging, and sincere, and realize your perspective on debate so I’ll try to answer in a way you’ll understand.
The spiritual luxury of being in kollel, came with a lot less resposibility than I have now. We lived with less, because we didn’t need those things. We didn’t have a number of tuitions to pay, or bli ayin hara, so many mouths to feed. The sweetness of those years, of being totally wrapped in a learning Torah environment felt like a luxury to me. It was a gift from HKB”H that in the “teva” sense really shouldn’t have happened (absolutely no monetary support). At the time I don’t know that I could have articulated the luxury part, but in retrospect it is best described as a spiritual luxury.