Inquisitor,
Great post, and welcome to the board.
I think you make a great point about what the Society is truly pushing. On a lot of issues (another example is the internet), the Society knows that a completely hardline position would be seen as unreasonable by people both inside and outside the religion. So they are careful to print softer statements once in a while to present the appearance of a more balanced position. However, it's easy to see what the actual position is by observing the culture in the hall, which is affected by non-printed materials, such as talks at the assemblies and visits by the CO.
For example, how many times have you heard a CO talk like this: "Now, brothers, the April 19xx WT says that it is possible to attend college and maintain our faithfulness to God. But is the Society really saying that we should all attend college? Hasn't the Society's position always been that we should put Kingdom interests first, and use our time to pioneer?" Etc, etc. So the spoken instruction can be used to countermand the written instruction, which remains as a mere showpiece to make outsiders believe that the position is more lenient than it actually is.
Another advantage to this double-speak is that later, when people are angry that they didn't go to college and are still washing windows at 60 years of age, the Society can point back to a few snippets and say, "Hey, we didn't tell you not to go to college. We said it was a conscience matter."
The point is, the culture in the halls is carefully constructed and maintained. And by intentionally never praising youths that do go to college, they implicitly show that this is not truly an acceptable path. JWs who choose to go to college will be considered fringe, mildly rebellious, half-Witnesses, not quite as spiritual as young John and Jane Pioneercouple. So although the Society sometimes prints concilliatory statements, its true position on college is clear.
SNG