Religious Orders

Why is it that religious orders of men and women seem to connect so much better with the laity than does the diocesan priest?  Religious orders grow from the laity.  Monks are not ordained.  They are brothers.  Women religious are not ordained.  They are nuns  or sisters.  In Canon Law they are treated at times as laity.  They don't spend time in seminaries learning all about how to protect the Church from the secular world of sin.  They live or work in the secular world among the laity.  They never get far from their roots.  They spend no time getting "formed" into defenders of orthodoxy.  Religious orders are more likely grass root oriented to real life problems of people.  Religious orders have a "charism."  They exist for a particular purpose or mission.  Often they are founded to do some work that the hierarchy has neglected, such as educating poor women.