Jacobi's criticism of Kant's system is unintentionally revealing. "Without this thing (the thing-in-itself), I cannot enter the system, and with it, I cannot remain in the system."
A philosophical system is not a book within which one can eternally dwell. It is a method -- met/odos, "with road." A path that, on balance, seems wiser than the others, and leads one to a useful place. The fact that the dualism of the thing in itself makes it impossible to think that Kant's system has resolved the mystery of human existence is the system's greatest virtue, pointing us squarely at the right spot as we look beyond the place where we stand.
Relatedly, coming to understand that the pragmatism that I've been crusading against is in fact the overwhelmingly preponderant misunderstanding of the doctrine, which is actually a species of idealism. And yet, taking these facts as true, according to the lights of the doctrine itself...