Menachem, I have never read Berger’s book and I saw the “Who Elokeinu?” quote in Beis Moshiach itself.
The fact that Beis Moshiach had a decent enough following to allow its continued publication it its radical form shows what I was trying to prove, to wit that there are Lubavichers who believe that their rebbe is G-d and who daven to him. Just as the person who says “Barch the Rebbe” believes that his rebbe is G-d, and, I can only assume, davens to him.
I did not say that these people are the majority, and neither as far as I remember did Avirah. Just that some do, which I believe you denied. Or perhaps it was someone else who did. It makes no difference.
As to Shlomo Cunin, all the justification is unacceptable. He said that the Lubavicher rebbe runs the world, and he doesn’t. Note, he did not say “tzaddikim” he said “the rebbe”. That’s not the same as all the justifications that you and others have given.
I myself heard a few months ago when I was on a trip abroad from a Lubavicher mashpia that when the Baal Hatanya says (excuse me for not remembering the exact quote or citation) that all the shefa comes through tzaddikim (or something like that – my apologies once again) he said tzaddikim in the plural only because he was being modest, but what he actually meant was that it all comes through him alone. And that therefore “in our generation” it’s only via the rebbe.