*would*

The giants of economic science during* the past two hundred years *have been* men concerned with the critical policy issues of their time. They studied the working of the economy in order to advocate better economic polices. But despite their concern with policy, they were no polemicists or politicians buy men who sought to persuade their contemporaries in government and in the broader public by analysis and evidence that *would meet the standards of professional debate.
(This was quoted by the book named "new ideas from dead economists")

HI~

I have two questions.

one: in first sentence, is it more natural to use for* instead of *during
I mean, present perfect is normally going with for* or *since isn't it?

two:in last sentence, I have difficulty understanding would...
in this sentence, is it okay if i use just met* instead of adding *would?
I've learned that would is used to make a sentence more less direct and gentle in place of will
so then is it possible to use will* instead of *would in this last sentence?

please I need your help!!

by the way I've been learning ENGLISH for years

I'm not good at ENGLISH yet

forgive me if there are grammatical errors in the sentence that I've written. and by chance if you should have a little time left when you answer my questions I'be very happy if you corrected my errors.