Need or value

Hello. It is clear that there is value in self-sufficiency, as Shas and Rishonim have already emphasized. There is no need for me and my own (on this whole matter, see the length and many sources in Prof. Yehuda Levy’s book, Sha’arei Talmud Torah). But you assume in your words for some reason that the value of academia is only as professional training, and discuss the question of whether professional training is important or not. But academia provides knowledge and tools for learning and thinking, and they have value in themselves. In the dilemma of whether to go there or stay in a yeshiva, there is of course no one right answer for everyone, but it is worth taking into account two more considerations: Someone who is very talented for academia is better off going there even if they are suitable to study in a yeshiva (you assumed that someone who is suitable for a yeshiva would obviously not go to academia). To take an extreme case: Einstein should not have stayed in a yeshiva but rather pursued physics to begin with. This is a huge contribution to human thought (and of course also has technological and other implications). Academia is beneficial for the very study of Torah. It opens the mind and also new paths of study and thinking.