I don't know what you mean by "moribund scholastic interpretation". Scholasticism was not a monolith. There were different schools within it and much lively debate and reasoned argumentation between the various parties. As for your quote from Galileo, I would call that a very fair summary of the philosophy Thomas Aquinas. He insisted on the validity of reason to understand objective reality conveyed by the senses. This is why the Augustinians opposed his philosophy. But Aquinas won that argument, though posthumously.
Aristotle's errors were codified into doctrine. In particular, it was taught that constant motion required constant force. Galileo went to great lengths to explode this doctrine, and I don't think it can be supported that the scholastics knew it was false all along.
I also don't think that Thomas Aquinas made any kind of appeal to independent thinking among the common folk such as Galileo did in the quote I cited. Insofar as Aquinas spoke of the "validity of reason" it was to the purpose of reconciling any reasoning that might done to Church doctrine. He wasn't exactly turning reason loose in the streets. Bruno was burnt at the stake!