I'm not a religious scholar either, but if we're discussing what Islam says is the purpose of fasting, then yeah it couldn't be clearer in that verse. If you want to derive a sense of compassion for all beings from the idea of God-consciousness/piety/taqwa, then yeah you may have a point that it is a secondary effect of fasting, but Arabic has adequate expressiveness to cater for that if that was the prime motive, so I disagree that that is the central reason for fasting.