If I understand you correctly, this passage could be interpreted in many ways, but it is up to the individual to make this interpretation, and this makes it an intellectually challenging exercise.

Correct, yes, this is how I see it. What one makes out of something, depends also on what is in wide circulation. If something is reduced too much, and does not give credit to complexity, then we end up in ridiculing the sources.

The reduction of complexity has positives and negatives, I think.

Since almost everyone who wants to ridicule the bible has not much more in mind than Genesis, but knows nothing about the rest, it tends to become negative when many people start ridiculing one part of a source.
In contrast, when one has enlarged his knowledge about the bible, Genesis and other well known wordings from the bible appear as the essence of something, which otherwise needs a deep study and a mind who had let itself been intellectually challenged.

Regardless of the interpretation, the idea is very advanced and intellectually challenging once you begin examining it closely, and this appears to be your main thesis. The devil is in the details, in a manner of speaking.

Yes, absolutely :)

"once you begin examining it closely", you can't help but to formulate more questions in your mind.
This can be inspiring, but it also can discourage, since one becomes aware of the fact that there is a lot to study.