For whatever it’s worth, someone I know who learned at both List College (JTS undergrad division) and at Eretz haTzvi has told me that R’ Dr. Joel Roth, probably the leading halakhist nowadays at JTS, is more traditional and “frum” then R’ Krauss. To me, though, this just attests to R’ Roth’s stature.
Interestingly enough, it reminds me how on the topic of artificial insemination for unmarried women, R’ Yuval Cherlow is more meikil than the head of Machon Schechter, R’ Dr. David Golinkin. R’ Cherlow allows single unmarried women to conceive babies using donor sperm, whereas R’ Golinkin does not.
In this vein, I’ve also been told by quite a few rabbis associated with the UTJ (halakhic people who broke off from JTS in the early 80s over feminist/egalitarian issues) that they perceive a lack of fealty and submission to the halakhic process among certain elements associated with Open Orthodoxy. The boundaries between the Orthodox left and the halakhic right-wing of Conservative institutions are, in all honesty, nebulous, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there is greater collaboration. Frankly, I think that fealty to halakha and not to denominations is a positive thing. Judaism is either halakhic or it’s not.
I know of a YCT musmakh, R’ Hausman, who teaches at the American Jewish University (Conservative) in Calfornia, and Mimi Feigelson, a professor there, is on the advisory board of Yeshivat Maharat.
R’ Dr. Sperber is a brilliant scholar, and his gadlut is evident in all his scholarship. So too is R’ Berman. Rabbi Marc Angel, while not on their board, has appeared in YCT promotional videos, and is very scholarly.
You’re point isn’t takeh that these rabbanim aren’t talmidei hakhamim. You’re beef is that they don’t agree with you and that they don’t hold the same way you do. You hate the fact that people could be accomplished talmidei hakhamim and still come out with different shitot than you. To quote a well-known work by a rabbi associated with this sector, “you don’t have to be wrong for me to be right.”