Softwords,
1. Your response makes no sense to me. Gedolim do not retire. They pasken until they die. While I would certainly expect a young oncologist to recommend an older and more experienced doctor for a difficult operation when several are more or less on the same level I would not expect one to send me to another. Chazal pointed out that even great sages do not see when they are wrong in a monetary dispute. However, just as the young doctor will recommend his teacher so too will a rav recommend his rav.
2. My understanding is that “daat Torah” means that gedolim have either a mystical power (if they are Chassidim) or a superior analytical power (if they are Litvaks) to decide questions which are not halachic. For example, a few years ago a construction company in Israel went bankrupt after the owner absconded to Europe. Many Chareidi families lost everything because their rabbanim advised them to accept the offer of a discount on the apartments under construction in lieu of the bank guarantees that are accepted business practice. Of course, this is nothing compared to the error made in advising Jews not to leave Europe when it was still possible as there would be nothing more than some old-time discrimination. I do not believe in this concept. Of course, if a rav is also an expert in some secular field (e.g. Rav Hutner’s talmid muvchak Rabbi Prof. Israel Kirzner is a renowned economist – and BTW he studied Economics with Ludwig von Mises, who was an anti-religious Jew) that is something else. But then he is speaking as a secular expert and not a rav.