There is an interesting Rabbeinu Tam in a tosfos in mesechta Beitza where the Rabbeinu Tam says, I don’t know where the people made so many chumras lately. I didn’t see any of this in my grandfather’s home (Rashi). Rashi himself says on the gemorah, that a heter is better because to be machmir you don’t have to know the real halacha, you just say ossur and that’s it. To give a heter you have to know the halacha clearly. My father z’l would say that a very big meikal is called a “kal”. Therefore a very big machmir would be called a “chamor”.
