It's time to challenge ourselves to choose between human power or capital power. Conservatives believe people can't organize themselves, so they need a central controlling institution. Idealists recognize the potential for freely associated labor and self organization to rip up capitalism at the root and create something better. But this doen't mean that intellectuals or organizers just sit around and wait and then jump on for the ride. They have the responsibility to challenge people to deepen their opposition, to get to the meaning in thought and in history.
Intellectuals can help a movement speak to itself.
You say we already know what ends we want. Philosophy is a question of life and death. Many anarchists who joined revolutionary forces to fight a common enemy also thought theory wasn't necessary. You should look into how many anarchists were killed by Mao or Castro or in Spain during the Civil War by Stalinists whom they united with for pragmatic reasons. They burned out.