There is the truth of history and the truth of now. Both matter but intellectual history is less relevant to what is actually happening right now on a number of levels. If you prefer to study intellectual history rather than contemporary cultural manifestations, ofc, that's fine.
I've tended to go deeply into Lacanian psychoanalysis to study religious history when writing academically. I also comment on different currents in the understanding knowledge and how it is impacting political thought right now on an immediately contemporary & condensed way.