It seems like it was intellectual, but didn't have a proportional output of science or art that has stood the test of time.
Feel free to disagree and tell me why I'm wrong
Back in 541-542 an outbreak killed about 40% of the city’s population. But even during the period 1347-1453, a total of 61 plague reports were noted.
They only had the wealth, peace and population to focus on science to a very small degree. That they managed to stay afloat for as long as they did is a testament to the science the original Romans left them, and which we can thank the Byzantine's for preserving.
An outbreak of the plague.
But they did produce significant art and science, and especially architecture: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_science
There would have been no transmission of the classics without the Byzantine, and possibly no Renaissance in Europe.
Even though I'm an oaf, I do think it's nice that they maintained copies of the Greek stuff
I don't think that's true. Church only opposed science that was in contradiction with the Bible, which was a small minority of all science discoveries. Church never had any qualms with Newton laws or laws of conservation of mass (in chemistry) etc.
That was a much later church separated by more than one schism. The Orthodox Church of the Byzantine empire was much less tolerant of any thoughts that might contradict doctrine. More that one philosopher was convicted of heresy.
Constantinople had a reputation for having constant theological debates; writers mentioned how common townsfolk were debating the nature of Christ, etc.
Historically, looking back at them we see "unenlightened" folk -- perhaps the way future people, the ones who survive WW4, will look back at us and our debates about race and gender -- but at the time they were wildly well educated and highly versed in religion, politics, and philosophy.
And they did have science -- we have yet to fully understand Greek fire. Innovations in armor and horse breeding created the Cataphracts, based on Eurasian horsemen that the Byzantines routinely clashed with.
And, as the article points out, they smuggled silk and created a new industry from scratch. We scorn them for not being as advanced as we are 1000 years later but for a while Constantinople was, to quote Napoleon, "the city of the world's desire".