MDG: The point of Rav Dessler was his quote of Vayikra Rabbah 2:1: “One thousand students enter to study Mikra… and only one emerges to hora’ah.” That the Yeshiva system was designed to give that 1 in 1,000 student the ability to become a godol b’yisroel. That unless the Yeshiva system was as demanding as it was, that 1 in 1,000 wouldn’t become the godol he could. And we need those gedolim.
cantoresq: Rav Dessler point was not that the other 999 will become poor am ha’aratzim c”v. Rav Dessler specifically pointed out that the Roshei Yeshivos would do all they could for the other 999 to remain bnei Torah. (He wrote: “They tried as best they could to help those who could not remain in the yeshiva as bnei Torah.”) A ben Torah is in no way, shape, or form an am ha’aretz.