The difference is that it is an explicit belief of most jewish groups that God put these "clever" gimmicks into the rules on purpose, God wants you to look for them and be rewarded for looking for them, and God thinks the way jewish people debate about rules is awesome, and that "clever" workarounds are just the best.

Contrast this with my Catholic tradition which insists that if I get cheeky with God I should expect to be slapped back down. Jesus seems nifty though, so it's a tradeoff.

Also, I'm lying. Catholics had no problems playing dumb games with "The rules" to eat beavers when they weren't supposed to eat "meat" and also fish aren't "meat" to this day. We're fun like that.