EOHB -
Your parents seem like they had an self awareness that allowed them to navigate through the JW system and to use it to their general advantage and purposes, while avoiding the cracks that others fall into. This speaks to their being generally well adjusted, thoughtful and considered people.
While my parents did many things well and no doubt loved their children (and I have many happy memories), my parents are followers and not particularly thoughtful and considered. They are not the sort of people who will consider the unintended consequences of a religious policy/doctrine, they are not the sort of people to seek out criticisms so as to be able to come to a nuanced and reasoned position that reflects getting the best for them or their family.
My father is very susceptible to emotional rhetoric, assemblies and conventions are very emotional times. He hates people that use the JW system to their advantage and he hates it more that they are smart enough to use the rules to justify their position. Swept up in emotion and suspicious/disliking of anyone seeking personal advantage, my dad had boxed himself into a position of unquestioned obedience to the strict or common interpretation of the rules.
With the above in mind, if we were Catholics, we would have been strict Catholics, Hippies - strict Hippies (if that makes sense!) My parents (Dad particularly) would have interpreted the rules in the same literal, uncritical, unreasoned, emotional way.