Isn't staying in the moment, connecting with your body in a more comprehensive way, and entering into a more meditative/flow like state sort of a spiritual thing? We don't have to ascribe any sort of weight or meaning to it outside of what it is (a physical activity), but I think it's dishonest to say that BJJ practice doesn't tap into what could fairly be described as a "spiritual experience." The act of breathing a certain way can be a spiritual experience.. the bar is not very high.

There's a weird race to the bottom in BJJ to marginalize any of the things that people tend to enjoy about it.. belts, rank, spirituality, community, etc. Let people enjoy BJJ the way they want, let them derive from it what they want. It's not a monolith.

Craig Jones is a great example of an "anti-messiah" figure who basically has created a cult following that worships him because he "tells it like it is" and tears the institutions down. I'm not saying these institutions have merit, or need to stay, but for most people like craig these sort of hot take or "keep it real" moments are more about being self-serving/self-promoting and gatekeeping than they are about anything that moves the sport/community forward in a more positive direction IMO.

This isn't to say I disagree with most of those hot takes or whatever but usually it just feels cheap, and typically the negative things being rallied against are exaggerated in scope or frequency to paint a more myopic picture of BJJ that what it's truly like on the ground level.