Pesachim 38a, b

More debate today about matzah.  Without including the scope of conversation, some of their basic questions and ideas follow:

• Can matzah made of second-tithe produce be used over the start of Pesach?  
• How does this practice compare with the practice of using a second-tithe etrog on Sukkot? 
• When is it required to separate challah from matzah? 
• How might ritual impurity change the rules?  
• What does it mean to 'guard' the matzot (Exodus 12:17)?  
• Is this commandment connected with protecting matzah made for Pesach from other matzot, like Nazirite wafers for sacrifice?  
• Does "Seven days you sahll eat matzot" (Exodus 12:15) include the nights? 
• Matzah ashira is 'enhanced matzah', perhaps including any ingredient beyond water and flour
• Is matzah for the start of Pesach allowed to be made with nullified (tiny amounts) of oil?
• Small, personal altars allowing limited sacrifices were used in the times of the Judges (Steinsaltz)
• Nov and Givon housed large, communal altars to be used when the Temple was not yet built (ibid)

Even when these ideas were discussed, many of the questions of the rabbis were theoretical.  They wanted to understand which animals could be sacrificed in times past.  Not to assist them in their decisions regarding 'today', however.  

Was Talmudic thought an exercise in logic first and foremost, before it was a creator of halacha and legal structures?  Sometimes it seems that the rabbis are arguing for the sake of bettering their skill at argument.  And if that is correct, why would someone like me - someone who does not take for granted that G-d is directly behind these words and the words of the Torah - continue to struggle with their arguments?  Perhaps it is that logical structure that holds my interest.  As much as I want to understand past societies, halachic origins, etc., I may wish to understand the internal logic of Talmudic thought.