There is a major difference between the way that a rov answers a sheila, as opposed to the actual halacha is. Now for the great majority of people who do not know how to properly look into the matter and find what the poskim actually say, they have no choice but to ask a rov. However those people who know how to learn will find many times that something is clearly mutar, when no posek will officially be matir that thing. The main reason for this is that a rov must take into account 2 things. The 1st is that people who do not understand learning will learn to be matir other things based on the heter the rov gave him. The 2nd is that there is a major difference between having a single person doing something in private and thousands of people doing the same thing in public.
A clear example of this is the Igrohs Moshe who writes a very long teshuva in which he says that on shabbos its mutar to open cans and bottle caps in which the bottom ring of the cap is separated from the cap. Howeverr he writes that this heter should not be told to the general public because they will come to be matir things that are assur based on their not understanding the reasoning of that heter.
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