Thanks for expressing this, it really resonates with me.
A quibble regarding "This individual has invested time and attention, and the return on that investment is knowledge and understanding. Knowledge that external authority is illusion. Knowledge of right and wrong in terms of human behavior. "
Mark Passio, and many others, discuss the importance of the trivium as a B.S. detector and the three roads that meet are knowledge, understanding and wisdom. When you say: "Knowledge that external authority is illusion. Knowledge of right and wrong in terms of human behavior. " these thoughts make me think more of understanding and wisdom respectively.
My quibble is only relevant if you interpret knowledge in the stricter "trivium" sense of grammar i.e., information that answers the questions who, what, where and when. So if you were not coming at this from the perspective of the trivium, just ignore this quibble. If your frame of reference is the trivium, then maybe my comment is relevant.
Point well taken. Thanks for the comment. No, I did not have the stricter trivium sense in mind.