Dear Arso,
Gur started to change already before the war. And they had already moved to Eretz Yisrael. There never was consistency in Gur. Even when their Rebbe could rightly be called the giant of the generation. I don’t know what you know about Gur. But they seem to me to be a lot further out than Chabad. Especially in Ikkari Emunah.
Satmar never had a heavy emphasis on The Baal Shem’s Torah. It was a tumultuous hundred years until it became what we see now. They may now settle into a new archetype. But there is no comparison to Chabad which goes back centuries.
My point with the Sanz dynasties is that it’s hard to read into them now. It is easy to discern which ones were authentic to the Divrei Chaim before the war, and which were more creative and visionary like. But now, I can’t really tell what they are about. Though their success is impressive.
Chabad was and still is primarily about the spread of Chassidus to bring Geulah to the the world through Complete Emunah. This can be found in the seforim of two hundred plus years ago and this is still on the lips of every devout Chabadtsker. This overrides any other consideration to them. If you have a problem with that premise, than you simply haven’t studied it. So much ink and agitation was put into this concept without ever reaching a full schism. You simply have no right to advocate for schism now, without thinking better of yourself than any Chassid or Misnagid who ever lived.
The fact that Chabad embraces innovation, modernity, and technology, is not critical to Chassidus. How one dresses or talks is not the reasons the Besht revealed himself. Nor was it to give twenty five gabbaim a job or to lead tish at a late hour to some thousand disconnected people.
Between the wars Lubavitch was into outreach. Maybe even earlier. That was a real thing in Lita. Telshe, Navardok, and others were all over it too.
Besides for his views, he helped a lot of Israeli politicians to get meetings and the like in America. And got nothing in return.
The Moshiach emphasis started right after the war. Before the last rebbe. It wasn’t uncommon then. Especially after the initial events in Eretz Yisrael. It waned elsewhere. But in Chabad it grew and grew. That is the Chabad way. They hold on tighter when others let go. You are seeing that in your debates with them.
The Rebbe helped out many yeshivos. Particularly, Torah Vdaas. He worked for mikvahs and mitzvah observance across the country. [That was the norm in post war America. Isolation was not an ideal then. Orthodoxy had to be saved.]
Could be he wanted to be accepted by all, but he didn’t say bad about any other leaders publicly or privately. If he had an issue, he spoke to the gadol directly and frankly.
And his followers never threatened to kill them. Or beat them up.