“if someone asked a rav or gadol who went through the current university system, if they’d say they were unaffected, and hadn’t lost any part of their frumkeit, sensitivity, strength, through their years there”
Rav Soloveitchik z’tz’l clearly saw it as a positive. His wife, son, both daughters, and both sons-in-law all earned doctorates as well. One son-in-law was a Harvard professor (and Rambam expert!) Prof. Twersky, and the other, Rav Lichtenstein, uses his ability as a master of English literature to make Torah points on a regular basis. (It is actually worth it to read Milton and Blake in order to fully understand Rav Lichtenstein’s Torah!) Rav Hirsch explicitly states that secular education such as that which he received at the University of Bonn is a good thing.
Today in America most rabbis with university educations have gone to Yeshiva College or maybe Touro (much newer). So their experience may not be applicable to, say, Columbia or Queens College.
Nevertheless you make an interesting point. I’ve listed many university-educated gedolim. I once asked a very prominent rav, who himself has a doctorate, what they had written about their university experiences (as opposed to the benefits after university). I had hoped that they might offer some insights as to the challenges a frum Jew might face both inside the classroom (where ideologies inconsistent with Torah do appear) and outside (where licentiousness and hedonism has been common for hundreds of years). To my surprise I found that none had written anything about the matter. 🙁