Ts, before doing mitzvos we say vehi noam – that Hashem should find our service fitting and proper and should bless our efforts, that we should serve Him the way He wants us to.
Opening q religious event with a request that we find favor before the lubavitcher rebbe, is very very different than a speaker saying at, say a siyum hashem “rav Meir shapiro is looking down on us with such nachas”
One is a request, which only Hashem can and should answer, and the other is a sentiment.
My main avodah zara point was cunin’s rebbe running the world bit.