AAQ, I don’t think it’s circular at all; some rabbis have a mesorah and some have made a name for themselves while either leaving their mesorah or never having had one to begin with. Those who are pure in their beliefs and have spent their lives completely immersed in Torah without admixtures of foreign influence are worthy of having their opinions hallowed and revered as ayin ponim latorah even if average yodeah sefer individuals such as myself may have not been taught that way.
When a rabbi has a view of Torah mixed with haskalah or any other non-torah influence, that view is not worthy of respect, nor is the person who maintains it viewed as an authority or someone I can’t judge as i would any other non-gadol jew – I’m not out to judge them unfavorably nor do i think that they are all apikorsim, reshoim or what have you. I don’t think rabbi yoshe ber Soloveitchik, or rabbi hershel shechter was/is either of those things. But they are f lawed torah scholars with some opinions based on foreign influences and as such have biases that prevent them from being termed gedolei yisroel to whom i must be machniah. I am machniah myself to many rabbis who were on a lower level of learning than rabbi yoshe ber, but i do so because of their pure Torah minds.