rabbiofberlin:
I think you will find my feelings best understood in light of the last paragraph on that same wikipedia page.
I would argue that calling him “a pioneer of modern orthodoxy” is not that difficult to understand when he himself describes his stance as “faithful adherence to traditional teachings combined with an effective effort to keep in touch with the spirit of progress”.
The fact is that a lot of controversy surrounds the German rabbonim because of their stances. Possibly precisely because they went to university.
It is well known that Germany was a bastion for the enlightenment and some may argue that the rabbonim of the country had to make a horo’as sha’a to keep the remaining Jews frum. But out of necessity or not, the large majority of gedolim were against this.
Incidentally, being the talmid of someone is not like a haskamah for a sefer. I’d point your attention to yoshka as the most extreme proof of that. However there are less extreme examples that I can offer as well.