“I believe in upholding all minhogim regarding limud haTorah, tefilah, levush, having the right hashkofoh”
I am a modern Orthodox supporter of religious Zionism, and I believe in all those things, too. And I hold a PhD and am being promoted to full Professor at a medical school.
” why isn’t there anything left of the old Yekkishe world, where it wasn’t weird for a person to be truly shomer mitzvos yet also have a high-level secular education?”
You can find that in the many communities in America inspired by the rabbis of Yeshiva University. I don’t know how much of that has moved to Israel, but one who did is Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein who studied with Rav Hutner and holds a PhD in English from Harvard. He frequently uses examples from literature and history to make Torah points; it is worth getting a good liberal arts education just to understand his Torah! Don’t rule him out just because he is a Zionist!!!
“he also holds Masters degrees and a PhD in psychology and fiscal law from the University of Amsterdam! Why is such a thing normal in Europe, yet completely out of the question in E”Y?”
That is a very good question! It is a not well known fact that from the 15th century to the 18th, hundreds of frum Jews including many rabbis attended university in Europe. I’ve seen no rabbinic objection prior to the 19th century.