I apologize if I am missing something. I very well might be. However, I think I noticed something that might help you find your middle ground between "you can do anything you want" and "you can't do anything you want."

Maybe you can do everything you want, just not in the way everyone thinks it should be done. It seems that you believe that you can't arrive at a unified theory without being PhD than a Prof. Maybe. Maybe not. Of course there are institutional benefits in the form of money and resources from doing the tried and true path.

But Einstein was a patent clerk when he articulated relativity and did not obtain significant academic recognition until after the theory. Now you don't have to have the intelligence of Einstein to make a meaningful contribution. You just need a different perspective, because new things can only be found where no one else is looking. It sounds like you have a perspective that the other PhD in quantum theory don't have. Perhaps venturing away from the University will give you an advantage because you will be exposed to stimuli that they won't be which will lead to novel experience to shape your thoughts in a way they never could.

Don't focus on the credential, focus on the work that you can do to get you where you want to go. Just a though. Your mileage may vary.