I absolutely agree on your pointed view on how academics consider philosophy and philosophers. And you're also right that I have dealt and still deal with the frustration of the inability to grasp the difference you point out: basically between being and referring. I'm very much interested in those who are who they say they are, and find them wonderful to talk to. Credentials, but more accurately it would be to say that the present educational system, fails to acknowledge that being cannot be labelled. In my forthcoming book I actually talk about this in a chapter, this need to repackaging thought as you call it. It is one of the reasons I'm disappointed in academic philosophy, and trying to stay on the verge of it at best.

Those who need the authority of a title to make a point, should not have such authority.