The Journey IS The Lesson

My wife has taken on a job of rescuing horses, so our back yard, presently, has three horses tromping around.
We have a small pony, an old racing horse, and a big black horse that was used for logging.

She used to have the neighborhood kids come over and help take care of the horses with a mind to give them something to do that would keep them out of trouble and teach them something worth while.
My own children have taken to the horses pretty quickly, my youngest son once sat with the race horse for a while, to keep him calm, saying, 'He loves me and I love him.'
To understand, we used to take care of this horse on its' own property because the owners themselves stopped coming by to check food and water, the decision was made to move the horse because people were messing with him at night and it became extremely unsafe for him to remain where he was.

Karate should be very much the same, not just a mode of self-defense, but an outlet, perhaps outlet is the wrong word.
Without losing sight of the original intent, what do we have? Horses need caring, and everything used to care for a horse has a purpose, not only that, but it teaches the value of hard work for the sake of hard work itself, not just what you get out of it, but what you put into it.
The two may not be interchangeable, but the point is clear. Lean too far in one direction or the other and one tends to become fanatical about their particular position.

I liked a comparison Wilder Sensei brought up in a phone conversation when I called him asking for some advice, something about the difference between a working farm where everything has a purpose and what is useless has no place, or something along the lines of McDojo where ascetic value is placed over function, and function isn't the determining factor.
I'm not sure if I have made the connection apparent, but it is there. The value in function shows you the value of function, not just making it look good. This goes for anything and everything you endeavor to accomplish, in Karate, in life, in the work place, ect.

It also goes to show that anyone can truly take something they love and make a life worth living out of it, starting with nothing more than what you have at hand.
Not to jump on the cultural bandwagon, but that sounds very much like an Okinawan way of doing things, though you will find it in the company of any old-school farmer no matter what part of the world they happen to reside.