“The issue is when this said person issues a statement, without providing a Torah source (or where other people bring in conflicting Torah sources) and people say that these statements are binding on klal yisrael as determined by the percieved stature of the issuer of the statement.”
Patur Aval Assur,
There are two separate issues that you raise. I think that when a person is struggling to determine what Hashem wants him to do, there are often no clear-cut, black on white answers. Sources can inform the answer but he is going to a Chacham for his intuition as to what Hashem would want, not for a source (which can always be distinguished).
The issue of being binding on Klal Yisrael are issues of halacha, and whether or not the ruling of a great sage in modern times (post-Talmud) can be binding on Klal Yisrael. I don’t think anyone maintains that non-halacha advice of a great sage can be binding on someone who didn’t ask for the advice (or even someone who did). And I don’t think anyone holds that even the halachic ruling of a single great sage, when there are other sages who disagree, can be binding on someone who didn’t ask for the ruling.