I´m not Jewish by birth, but have been to synagogues of all modern trends in Judaism, particularly Orthodox. You can´t really link phrases like ¨Talmud/Kabbalists¨ since they are two separate things. With the exception of one elderly Conservative rabbi, I´ve never known religious Jews to make any big deal over Kaballah. It´s talked about to be sure, but seldom seems more than something best left for specialists, so-called. Obviously, I don´t fancy it either.
Talmud, on the other hand, is a sort of case law compendium of commenteries of and about Torah. It would seem difficult to conceive of modern rabbinic Judaism being handed down from antiquity without Talmud....
Why so difficult? Christians do all right with just the Old Testament scripture handed down to us. The Karaites would sharply disagree with you. They have only the Old Testament, yet they do all right.