HakunaMatada: The Gra was not your typical Jew. 99% of Jews worked a full time job to support their families. There was no such thing as a kollel. It was only the best and brightest who learned full time. The whole kollel system, with thousands sitting and learning, is a modern thing.
As for Modern Orthodoxy, you say that things you mentioned aren’t done in chareidi circles, but are done in MO? You think MO people aren’t careful in halacha but chareidim are? Like the chareidim who covered up for child molesters? Or chareidim who are sent to prison for fraud? A chassidish rebbe was found guilty of fraud a few years ago, and was then a speaker at a meeting on business ethics! He was shown as a shining example of someone who did teshuva – just a few months after being found guilty! It’s like getting someone to speak to alcoholics, saying, “You can kick the habit, I’ve been sober for 2 days now!” You think chareidi women are always tznius? They why do I always hear people complaining about a lack of tznius in Lakewood? You think chareidim don’t watch movies? Please. I have relatives who are chareidim. One is a Rebbe in a yeshiva. He once asked me if I had any good movies he could watch on his computer, since he doesn’t have a TV in his house. I’ve seen chassidim in movie theaters. I’ve written here before that my wife and I went through fertility treatments. One year, we attended the A TIME shabbaton. The Shabbaton is about 99% chassidim. When we were checking out, there was a chassidish family ahead of us on line. They were asked to pay a balance on their room. The Shabbaton was supposed to have been sponsored, and shouldn’t have cost anything. What was the charge? I heard the woman at the desk tell them (they asked her what it was for.) The couple had ordered a movie to watch late on Friday night (yes, on Shabbos!). And not just a regular movie – a movie that nobody should be watching!
The fact is that every group does wrong. Modern Orthodox people are extremely stringent in halacha. Maybe we don’t take on crazy chumros like chareidim do. It doesn’t mean we aren’t careful about halacha. I don’t think right-wing is better than centrist or left-wing. It’s just different. There are 70 correct paths. Not everyone is on the same one you are. Deal with it.