We have spent a century softening this into reverence, and reverence is not wrong, it is just thin. Yir'ah is the same root used for the fear a man feels standing where he knows he is small. Scripture does not ask us to be comfortable with HaShem. It asks us to be honest about the difference in size.

What matters is where the phrase sits in the sentence. Proverbs 1:7 does not say the fear of HaShem is a good attitude to bring to your studies. It says it is the reshit of da'at, the beginning, the head of the matter, the first thing. Proverbs 9:10 says the same about chokhmah. This is architecture, not sentiment. Knowledge does not begin with accumulation; it begins with a man knowing which side of the conversation he is on.

Which is why Proverbs 3:7 pairs it with the warning against being wise in your own eyes. They are the same instruction from two directions. Stop being the reference point, and the fear of HaShem is what stands in that vacated spot.