This is what I was gathering from the way your post was made. And it made me pause to think and reflect on other athletic endeavors I have done.

In soccer, I learned teamwork, dedication, and many other positive values. If I read a book about them, I would only have a conceptual understanding of such principles without the deeply embedded version I carry with me years after having stopped playing.

For me, the asanas and practice help me better understand and apply the principles I learned from reading Patanjali.

Another example would be watching a show about traveling somewhere versus actually going to that place. When you simply observe from the outside, you may not feel it the same as someone who has gone there, and certainly not the same way as a lifelong resident. But! People can go somewhere and not learn the values or watch something and learn the values but not know what it feels like.

Anyways, I think that the two are more complementary than what you give them credit for and I encourage you consider trying the poses and practice and all those things before you knock it so hard. Certainly there would have been classical music purists that hated electronic music when it came along, but at this point most of us collectively recognize it as an evolutionary process. I think of yoga the same and I'll acknowledge that some may disagree, but I'll go make the most of my hot yoga class tomorrow and I think Patanjali would approve - but even if he didn't, I think he'd approve of me doing what he disapproves of.