When mentioning “academia”, please differentiate between empirical science and voodoo academics. The first one gives us information. Gemora accept sevorah as a very valid argument by itself, there is nothing “handmaid”-ish in using our collective mind to resolve issues with the minds that Hashem provided us for that reason. In many cases, issues that Chachamim speculated about are now empirical issues that we can see via microscope or telescope. Please tell me how would Rambam treat this evidence were he to live in our times.
The rest of academia that is based on their own values is not of much interest to us, of course.