“There were no rabbis – great or otherwise – who articulated a philosophy that they referred to as MO. “
Try Rabbi Yitzchak Yaacov Reines z’tz’l, Rabbi Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog z’tz’l, Rabbi Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg z’tz’l, and Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik z’tz’l, four gedolim. They didn’t use the term (I think it came later) but they reflect that hashkafah. And Rav Weinberg much more than Rav Schwab was probably the person whose hashkafah most accurately followed that of Rav Hirsch. Note also that Rav Herzog, Rav Weinberg, and Rav Soloveitchik all earned doctorates.
“The rabbonim in charge of RIETS at the time were against secular studies”
This is an actual lie. Rabbi Bernard Revel z’tz’l not only approved of secular studies, he himself had a PhD. (It was actually a major contribution to Torah knowledge as he found that the Karaites were not really liked to earlier movements that denied the validity of the oral law.)