Jon, you drive quite a wedge between formal and informal philosophy. What if a philosophical position combined both formal and informal elements? Informal philosophy tends to be wishy-washy because it lacks a "truth at any cost" touchpoint. Formal philosophy is afraid to talk about the real world. Wittgenstein is arguably an example of combining formal and informal. He promoted "truth at any cost" as a tool for people to clear the fog of delusion and absurdity.