The heathen demanded to be taught the Torah while standing on one foot. What else could Hillel say?
Hillel would never have argued that the ritual commandments and taboos are essentially unimportant or meaningless, nor would he reduce the Torah to purely rational morality, as you well know.
Well, we are discussing, among other people, one Paul, student of Rabban Gamaliel ben Hillel, so it seemed apropos. Moreover, I quoted not only R. Hillel, but also R. Akiva, whom you did not respond on.
Hillel would never have argued that the ritual commandments and taboos are essentially unimportant or meaningless, nor would he reduce the Torah to purely rational morality, as you well know.
And neither would the Jewish authors of the New Testament. These were men, after all, who kept the Sabbath--including limiting themselves to the prescribed Sabbath's day journey--observed the Feasts, worshipped daily in the Temple and in the synagogues at the prescribed prayer times, took Nazrite vows and offered sacrifices, circumcised their sons, were mindful of ritual purity and took care to purify themselves before entering the holy precincts, etc.
In fact, they were so mindful of ritual purity, that it took a direct vision from the Holy One to even jumpstart the Gentile mission, and figuring out how to integrate the Gentiles into Nazrene Judaism without compromising the Torah was the major issue that they struggled with.
If you wish to criticize their decision, then you must also repudiate traditional Judaism's concept of the Noachide.
Shalom.