I have been trying my hardest to stay away from this topic of conversation. However, there is something I must say. This sounds like the same conversation people had 60 years ago just replace the topic of “yeshivos” with “keeping shabbos”. There were also ‘ehrlich’, ‘frum’ and ‘heimish’ people then who felt they couldn’t afford to keep Shabbos (and, unfortunately chose not to).
I’d go on, but I am trying to avoid being drawn into this conversation