Debate about 'pedantic'

I'm having an ongoing debate with somebody about the word 'pedantic'. We both agree that the primary sense is that it concerns a person or activity that stresses formal rules e.g. "Deciding when to use a semicolon may seem like a pedantic matter to some" or "The pedantic math teacher informed Timmy that line segments in geometrical proofs must be capitalized".

However, I think there's an alternative or at least supplementary sense of pedantic which applies to other knowledge. For example, I wanted to say something like, "I do not mean to be pedantic, but the secret to life is not just to make a lot of money". I concede that there are alternative words, maybe even superior words, but is the word pedantic out of place here? If the intent of the claim is to stress a platitude (or refute an oft refuted platitude), wouldn't one be pedantic in doing so?