PBA: In my experience, a “Rabbi” wearing a Kippah S’rugah is treated with contempt by more right-wing communities, regardless of level of knowledge or observance.
I am very close with a more “modern” Rabbi from an out-of-town community who was a massive Talmid Chacham. He was in Lakewood for a wedding and had a few free hours so he stopped by a Beis Medrash. He came to the wedding in tears. He said that the two hour he spent there (and how he was treated) almost made him give up hope for the future of Yiddishkeit. (He gave a few details of what happened.) So while ZD is silly because all generalizations are wrong, as a general rule I think we he said has merit. If you’re a “modern” Rabbi you’re assumed to be an Am Ha’aretz, even when proven otherwise.