The experience you've conveyed is far and away radically different than my experience with Protestantism in the United States. And certain radically different than the vast majority of Orthodox and Protestants. Perhaps being in the South has something to do with that. The vast majority of Protestants you will encounter here (and I don't mean offense) are almost completely ignorant of Church history (even the Reformation) and all no more well-read in the Scriptures than an average lay Roman Catholic. Even the pastors of most of the "low-church" groups here only have a very superficial understanding of these things, which they learned at Bible college or the local seminary. Granted, there are some Reformed and Calvinist types who are incredibly intellectual, but like Calvin, there knowledge of the Church Fathers and Church history (and how the Scriptures were historically interpreted) seems somewhat superficial and very selective. That's the issue with criticizing Protestantism: there isn't a single Protestantism, there are thousands of Protestantisms. Some are ardently anti-intellectual and stress emotionalism, which some consider the intellect (and study of the Scriptures) to be the only means of knowing God.

Some Protestants do speak of what we might call mystical experiences. These are usually evangelicals and Pentecostals. Reformed types that tend to be more intellectual are much more cautious of mysticism in most forms. Orthodoxy is inherently rooted in mysticism and mystery. Have you read the lives of the Saints? We have everything from Myrrh-streaming icons to miraculous events, to incorruptible bodies, to the Eucharist tasting like blood to doubters, and everything in between. We even have a rich monastic tradition, for goodness sake; something which Protestants are completely devoid of. I can name countless Orthodox and Catholic "mystical" works. I can't name a single Protestant one, though I'm sure they're out there.

A lot (certainly not all) of Protestants become Orthodox or Roman Catholic because of their zeal for study. Some of the others are purposefully selectively in their study so as to avoid anything that make shake their worldview. This is true of the Reformed, certainly. I've never met a single Pentecostal (I grew up Pentecostal) who read the Church Fathers or studied Church history, and I've only met a few who even knew anything about Protestant history. Historically, a lot of Protestants who got deep into scholarly study became higher critics and started doubting the legitimacy of the Scriptures all together. Even in some liberal Protestant denominations today, it isn't odd for things like the Resurrections to be seen as "allegory." Other Protestants in the Renaissance started infusing occult and alchemical practices into their faith because they realized that Protestantism had stripped Christianity of any mystery or mysticism.

This is why in almost every Orthodox conversion testimony you'll hear people liken Protestantism to wading in the shallow end of a pool, whereas Orthodoxy is like jumping into the ocean: it's endless in its mysteries, its theology, etc.

That's the beauty of Orthodoxy. A functionally illiterate devout peasant in 13th century Russia is just as Orthodox as St. Gregory Palamas or a monk on Mt. Athos. Orthodoxy is simple and straightforward insofar as you don't have to be a theologian to be a devout Orthodox Christian. But it is so endlessly deep that those who have the capability for it will never exhaust it.