Is Chardal a Kofer?

ej posted a very interesting comment from Chardal:

I think that many of these dilemmas [i.e. DH vs. TMS] are more central to galus Judaism than EY Judaism. Over here, we Religious Zionists see Judaism as being based on certain concrete ethical/political goals more so than on a set of dogmas. I think that this was true for chazal as well (and pretty much true until the middle ages). If we accept that chazal had a "functional theology" then any "dogmas with consequences" which exist in the gemara were the result of ethical/political goals and not the source of an ethical edifice (as they were for thinkers such as the Rambam). I believe that such an approach is only possible as an autonomous community (whether in EY or Bavel). Today, of course, it is only possible in EY.

In other words, the ikkar of Judaism for Chazal was Nationhood (in Zion or in Bavel). All that Torah Min Hashamayim stuff was just a sideline and not really the ikkar. But now that we are in Golus, we have lost that Nationhood aspect, hence we all obsess over TMS. If were good Zionists living in Israel, we wouldn't care so much.

From a sociological point of view, I think there's some truth to this. It doesn't help me much, unless you could really show that for Chazal, TMS was very peripheral, not the ikkar.