The attitude towards studying Gemara in the opinion of the Rambam

Hello,
I know you have a certain policy of not explaining the opinions of rabbis – you say you should ask them about that.
But – still, maybe you'll deviate from your custom this time? (I beg you, with all my heart and soul 🙂

The Rambam writes about Talmud Torah as it is proper to study, and at the end he states that he should turn to studying Gemara, which is truly the essence of study.

These 2 laws

And he must divide his time into three parts: one part in the written Torah and one part in the oral Torah. And one part he must understand and comprehend the end of a matter from its beginning, and he must extract a word from a word, and he must compare a word to a word, and he must understand the standards in which the Torah is required, until he knows which is the main standard, and how he will extract what is forbidden and what is permitted, and the like, from matters he has learned by hearsay. This matter is called the Gemara.

How could he be a master of the art and be engaged in his work three hours a day and in the Torah nine times a day? He reads three of them in the written Torah and three in the oral Torah, and three others, he examines his mind to understand a word spoken and the words of Kabbalah in the written Torah and their interpretation in the oral Torah. And the matters called pardes in the gemara are what are the things that are said at the beginning of a person's Talmud. But when he grows in wisdom and there is no need to study the written Torah or constantly engage in the oral Torah, he will read the written Torah and the things heard at random times so that he does not forget anything from the words of the laws of the Torah, and he will devote all his days to the gemara alone, according to the breadth that his heart has and the concentration of his mind.

On the other hand, he writes in the introduction next to the assumption that a person should study the written Torah and then his own book, and there is no need for another book in between.
The question that arises is – if we do as he says and only study rulings (the strong hand), then what about studying the Gemara? And how do we acquire the ability to study independently without Talmud? As he says
"He will understand and comprehend the end of a matter from its beginning, and will extract a word from a word, and will compare one thing to another, and will understand the measures in which the Torah is required, until he knows that it is the essence of the measures."

As a side note, there is something interesting here – that the meaning of his gemara is self-study (the 13 virtues) that we ourselves will know the virtues that the Torah requires, like a real chazel! – This reminds me of the essays you did on the virtues that the Torah requires..)