> I'm not sure how legitimate it is to think you know or can determine the spirit of religious laws you don't know the details of.
That is precisely my point. Rabbis might say X or Y, that doesn't mean that it pleases God one way or another.
You can take the view that the loopholes are there to be found and thus prove your commitment, the opposite view or just the view that some are ok and some are not, this is all very theoretical given the impossibility of knowing what the relevant God thinks, as arguments could be made for both situations.