I think Young Earth Creationists are a small subset of a larger population of people who preemptively decide to follow rigid social customs involving marriage, filial piety, parental responsibilities, child-rearing, and how to deal with social miscreants. Traditional social customs require much less reason and logical thinking than what is required to understand geology, astronomy, physics, or mathematics. Traditional religious customs, like Neil Stephenson wrote in the Cryptonomicon, is like a user's manual for living; it's a manual with an extensive troubleshooting guide that doesn't explain exactly how or why the equpment works, but if you follow it, you will get more-or-less a predictable and stable life. Your mind and life will be at the mercy of whoever writes the manual and you will never be able to apply reason to change the manual for your own purposes (unless you leave your religious sect).

With this in mind, I think the final picture and text is accurate. Scientific discoveries introduce new concepts and technological possibilities with which traditional societies must somehow grapple using increasingly-outdated scriptures (or "manuals" as I described in the previous paragraph). With critical thinking and reason, all problems can be examined and solutions for living with them found. With tradition, you can only hope problems are dealt with by someone else.