I'm reading through this and finding it confusing. Only the devas are mentioned mostly, although Vishnu is mentioned a couple of times in a small role. Also the Soma has a great place - what was that? How come this oldest of scriptures has seemingly so little to do with modern practice and beliefs?

The Vedas are 95% lost. What we have left are the remnants.

This is not true. Neither the researches in the Vedas done by foreign and Indian scholars nor the traditional Vedic scholars support this view.

Vedas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In the traditional oral tradition a number of Sakhas have become extinct. But the Sakhas did not add any original material to the Vedas.

Ancient Indian Education ... - Google Books

The present Rig Veda consists of 10,600 verses, whereas the Puranas state there are 1 crore verses. Thus the Vedas are 95% lost in modern times.

That is not sufficient evidence. Puranas are well known for exaggeration.

The Vedas were preserved by the oral tradition. They created different Patas like Jada pata, Ghana pata and others to ensure the correctness of the text. That is the reason that the Vedas recited in Banares and Kanyakumari are the same.

This is in stark contrast to Itihasas and Puranas which have many regional variations. The Puranas were written thousands of years after the Vedas. Vedas, their evolution and thoughts are taught in Indian universities.