I owe the following insights to a conversation with Bryan Smith:
יִרְאַ֣ת יְ֭הוָה רֵאשִׁ֣ית דָּ֑עַת חָכְמָ֥ה וּ֝מוּסָ֗ר אֱוִילִ֥ים בָּֽזוּ׃
Note that the first and last words of the verse relate to dispositions: fear and despise.
Note that there is no waw after the athnach. It is possible, this being poetry, that “knowledge, wisdom, and instruction” should be read together as applying to both those who fear Yhwh and those who are fools who despise: “Fear of Yhwh is the beginning of knowledge, wisdom, and instruction; fools despise knowledge, wisdom, and instruction.” Subsequent verses indicate that fools hate knowledge (דַּעַת, Prv 1:22, 29).
This kind of thick, poetic meaning is the kind of thing one would expect in the thesis statement for the book.
Notably, Bruce Waltke says something similar:
The punctuation of the MT in this verse creates an enjambment. The parallel in 1:2a suggests that knowledge (da’at) in v. 7a spills over into wisdom (hokmâ) and instruction (mûsār) in verset B. Mutatis mutandis, “wisdom and instruction” in verset B spill over into “knowledge” in verset A. Fools (wîlîm; see pp. 112 13), however, are incapable of this prerequisite for understanding the sage’s teaching and knowing wisdom, for they willfully make the corrupt moral choice to refuse the sage’s moral teachings.
Waltke, NICOT, 1:181.
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