nomesorah-
Those people wearing kippahs with the version of yehi that says “Adoneinu Boreinu v’rabbeinu” are quite openly calling him their god. This is very prevalent in Tsfas.
When the local chabad rabbi by me- who is a meshichist- invited one of the rebbeim from the tsfas yeshiva to speak locally, I asked him how could he allow that rabbi’s presence in his shul; isn’t that a statement of support for his position?!
The rabbi told me something like, there are many different ways to understand our connection to the Rebbe, and it’s expressed differently depending on your relationship with him, and we can’t criticize people for having a different relationship with the Rebbe than we do.
(It was when he told me this that I absolutely stopped entering into meshichist shuls).
This is not a question of “kabbalastic ideas”. They are literally calling him their creator r”l.