Dear Smerel,
It’s not the leaders of chabad’s obligation to make sure that everything is understood properly. Instead of trying to glean the truth from lectures that are not being aimed at you, go talk to the people in question. After an enjoyable two hour shmooze on the topic, not one chabadsker will say anything like the Rebbe has replaced God.
The more difficult dilemma for younger chabadskers, especially the ones my age that never had the living Rebbe, is who filled this role before him, and before chabad came around. But in truth, every Jewish group struggles with this to some extent.