“I don’t think anyone was offering an opinion on this. We were simply noting the machlokes, and relying on our rebbeim as far as psak.”
Just to point out- just because rabbeim might say that the ikkur pshat in the mishna is middos and not working doesn’t mean that the average guy should be in kollel for an extended period of time. Just because we dont have a mishna saying that yafeh talmud torah im “working” dosent take away from the fact that that the gemara says harbei assu v’loi alsa beyadam, and the fact that a husband has chiyuvei kesuba which require him to support his family. And I have never really heard a great answer to that from any of my rabbeim.