at some point, you have to, because you can't be a specialist at everything.
Yes, you can't be a specialist at everything. I did not want to develop expertise in immunology, mRNA, etc. so I could understand what is going on, but I had to, because observable and objective reality did not match what "experts" were telling us. I'd rather kick back with a good SF book from my list than read papers and spend time deep diving-into obscure subjects I have no interest in. These "experts" are NOT trustworthy.
None of those claimed full sterilisation, because such a thing doesn't exist.
I think you are memory-holing a lot. Vaccine was advertised by experts as safe and effective. It was also advertised as preventing infection. It was also advertised as better than natural immunity. All which is false could be known as such even without benefit of the hindsight.
However, the vaccinations did allow to open up so they worked as advertised the way
Only that did not happen. We were locked down (except maybe Florida and Texas) for a while after vaccines became available. Do you remember masks, distancing, "papers please" to go out to dinner, 14 days isolation, parks and school closures, etc. ? Where I lived there were at least 3 waves of full lock downs, at least 1 well after I got personally vaccinated. That bullshit lasted all the way until Canadians and Australians started protesting. Even as introvert, that was way too much.