midot tovot good character would not be known to be an essential part of Torah except for Rav Israel Salanter. Religious feeling would be directed toward ritual. but the importance of musar goes far beyond  the awareness of the importance of good character but also in defining it. sfor pne thing the rishonim were particularly good at was painstaking rigorous  thinking and that kind of thinking i needed in order to understand what the Torah in fact considers good character and not to decide it baed on whim or personal bias.