Me vs the world on Spinoza

When I talk to some people about, e.g., Spinoza's Ethics, I belatedly notice a bizarre disconnect; we talk past each other.

And I think I know why. I am interested almost exclusively in "is it true"; or "does it make interesting logical arguements". And the answer, as far as I am able to tell, to both of these questions is "no".

Mfd is interested in "how does it fit into history"; or "how have other people cited this work"; and questions of that nature in which I have little or no interest; and to him, the question of whether it is true or not is a minor consideration not worth discussing.

M, too, was somewhat reluctant to consider the truth or otherwise of the work. To her a more relevant question was "is it helpful". This seems odd to me; a thing that is false can only be helpful by accident; would you not be better off starting by at least thinking about the truth?