Something I've realized about this material...

[βαθμιαίος]

In some ways I agree with the OP. It's certainly incredibly profound material. However, there's a lot of dross with the gold. The extraordinariness and unverifiability of many of the claims, especially in the early books, and the difficulty of the language and the concepts mean that many give up before they really get started with the material. So I think Ra's decision to answer Don's questions as they did preserves free will rather than violating it.