Most Sephardim aren’t particularly intellectually-inclined. The Syrian community in NY, for example, hasn’t produced many talmidei hakhamim or doctors or lawyers (although this may be changing with the newer generation). Business and making money, rather than pursuing emet, chochma, and maddah, is their typical raison d’etre. While historically, our tradition was a rationalistic one, most Mizrahim nowadays are into vernacular religious devotions and superstitious practices. Some of Hannah Arendt’s observations on this are entirely factual, unfortunately.
I’d be the first to say that the Judaism of the Rambam, Grace Aguilar, Rav Uziel, R’ Sabato Morais, Rav HD Halevi, R’ Hazzan, Hakham Faur, Rav Kapach, Jacques Lyons, and other luminaries of the Classical Sephardic tradition is very different from the Judaism of Shas, R’ Amnon Yitzhak, Deal, Avenue T, and hamsas.