common, not that I consider people who did not read Amelia Shmodelia uneducated, but your comparison is not fully fair: you are probably somewhat an outlier in your community.
Rather than comparing two communities – blac v stam hats – by an average person, let me compare by the higher ones. A typical gemora class in a black hat community starts with tannaim and ends with R Feinstein. In a modernishe class, discussion also goes into Roman civil law, Rambam’s reference to Plato, supreme court cases in 1970s, 19th century Germany, and a latest book or paper by one of the class participants.. Does not mean that the black hat class does not anyone to discuss Plato, but not enough to have a joint discussion.