'sacred' has had many meanings even in eastern buddhist sects; 'desacralization' had begun long before westernization.

However, there's huge kernel of truth here—Buddhist sects in particular (I can't speak for other uses for meditation; it's a huge area of knowledge) are entire frameworks (or philosophies, if you'd prefer) for how to think about life, and picking and choosing subsets of it will only bring subsets of the rewards.