Why have religious or very observant Jews not come to realize that food laws were only for disobedience?

Observant Jews understand the Jewish sources -- the materials passed down from the time of Moses through today regarding the Jewish national revelation at Sinai.

The interpretation you have seems to be based on the Helenistic theology of Christianity -- which in many ways is quite opposite to the revelation of God to the Jewish nation.

> So - what is the Jewish understanding of it? -

They entered into a lasting (eternal) covenant (agreement) with God whereby they became "a priestly state, a nation set apart"

The distinctive Jewish laws are intended as fundamentaly different from those of others because they are part of that distinctive job that God gave the Jews.

==

It may be worth noting that, while the normal Christian understanding is that sacrifice is needed as the atonement for sin,

the Jews were told otherwise by God --

FIrstly, the vast majority of Jewish sacrifices have nothing to do with sin

They are offerings of celebration - the sharing of joy.

Secondly - with respect to the sin sacrifice --

"the sacrifice of the sinner is an abomination"

"sin" is a violation of morality / a crime / a deed that damages the world

the slaughter of an animal can not be used as a bribe to God to hide moral culpability

Instead -- the person must repair his morality, make up for crime, repair damage to the world..

Only once he has done such real repentance, after he is no longer "a sinner"

then he comes with the sacrifice --

again - as an offering of fellowship with God

When the Jew brings a sacrifice to the Temple, it is like when a person takes his friend to dinner -- a way to come closer to his friend -- in this case - a way to come closer to God.

Noah wasn't a Jew. The laws G-d gave to the Jewish people, including the ones regarding Kashrut, only apply to the Jewish people. As for why we follow them, it's to remain aware of G-d's presence in everything, including what and how we eat. It's a practice of mindfulness. Not to mention that in many of our opinions the ways of eating via Kashrut just make sense, since following the laws make it easier to avoid parasites, bloodborn pathogens, poisoning (such as the Red Tide poisoning that occurs when eating certain shellfish harvested in less than ideal areas in less than idea times), and other little undesired problems that are inherent in the modern diet.

Jewish answer: You clearly do not comprehend the ways of the Gd of Abraham

It is about being aware of G-d on a daily basis and being different than those around us. By not being able to eat with non-Jews and (for men) looking different than the surrounding pagans of ancient times because of being circumcised, it made it much more difficult to assimilate into pagan cultures.

In addition, a pig cannot be slaughtered in a kosher manner, it has no neck.

added: <yawn> a Christian lecturing Jews on what we should believe. The arrogance is sometimes astounding.

Noah wasn't Jewish. There were no Jews at the time of Noah.

Observant Jews understand that non-Jews who follow the Law of Noah receive God's grace.

The dietary laws were given to Jews. Non-Jews aren't expected to follow them.

For more information, google Noahide.

And yet, in the OT god said the exact opposite of what you're ranting about, so isn't picking the one excerpt that supports your case cherry picking a bit?

All dietary laws were for the nation of Israel alone and not for the international church of Christ.