I’m amazed as to how many people havbe bought into the Artscroll dreamworld of the idyllic past generations. I realize that many boys yeshiva never study Neviim
but our ancestors were contantly being punished for worshipping idols ( real avoda zorah ). Any one ever hear of the Sadduccees, the Hellenizers, the Karaites?
Our ancestors in the middle Ages and in Eastern Europe were ( except for the 1%
of taslmedai chachamim ) were ignorant peasants living on shtetls who could barely read the Aleph Bais. They stayed frum out of habit. Under the church, you were either Catholic or Jewish, you couldn’t be nothing. Chassidus took hold because it told the masses that even though you couldn’t learn, you could come close tp Hashem thru singing. And, as soon as the ghettos opened, the vast majority of these jew by habit left the ghetto and never looked back.