I suspected there was something more to this! I fully agree that psychic
powers and wizz bang pop stuff is not given much importance in the Suttas,
and my own inclination is also not to be very interested in it, and I prefer
the sheer wisdom teachings same as you, but I also think this sutta very
clearly is talking about wizz bang pop stuff.
I discussed this a bit with my friend Ven. Kevali when we were spending last
vassa together at Wat Pah Pong. He's about four or five years senior to me
and he's tried out most of the main meditation monasteries in the Wat Pah
Pong group. I've only spent two months at Aj. Anun's place and visited LP
Peak and Aj. Dtun briefly. LP Peak and Aj Anun do talk about psychic powers
more than Aj. Dtun, and my own upajjhaaya, LP Liem, hardly ever mentions
them, and then usually in a joke, but then he also never denies that they're
really possible, so I think his point is just that they're not important.
Aj. Anun, Aj. Dtun, LP Peak, LP Liem are all believed to be Arahants, though
Aj. Anun has only actually admitted anagamitta to the monks. Even so they
have they're different temperaments and character (caritta-nissaya) traits,
not defilements on the level of intention, but just residues (vaasanaa) of
old habits.
Some people use the term 'supernatural' but that's not really accurate,
psychic powers are supernormal but not supernatural, and they're definetly
still under the laws of cause and effect. LP Plien actually talks about
psychic powers more openly and more often than any of the other forest
ajahns, I don't think it's wrong, it's just not my cup of tea. My favourite
of all the forest ajahns I've met is my own upajjhaaya LP Liem, who's
definetely a wisdom temperament.
If you're determined to interpret away the Dabba-Mallaputta sutta as having
nothing to do with psychic powers, how are you going to interpret the
'eightfold iddhi'? - a few bits come to mind: ''he dives in and out of the
earth as if it were water, he passes through walls, ramparts and mountains
unimpeded, he walks on water, he flies cross-legged through the air, he
appears, he vanishes, and he strokes the Sun and the Moon with his hand, he
weilds master of the [mind-made-] body as far as the brahmaa worlds.''