RoB,
Methinks that we are making ALOT of foward progress.
You have changed your tone from – “The yeshivishe oilam is looking for chumros” – to, “the search for kullos is a very legitimate way to pasken halochos”.
If we can agree on this point then I think that’s worthy of ANOTHER shot of Slivovitz (see the sports thread).
You say,
“I still disagree with you on the meaning of ‘koach dehetaira odif”. Rashi makes it clear that the reason for this is because you need BETTER reasons to be “mattir”. By hence, it is more correct than to be machmir. By definition, it is easier to say no”.
Not true. The point of Rashi, Tosafos & all the meforshim is that to be machmir you don’t need to “use your brains”. To be maikel, however, one needs to “learn the sugya”.
Therefore, it is obvious to the thinking man & indeed the S’dei Chemed brings from the Rishonim, that if the machmir “learned the sugya” as well as the maikel, & paskened that the kulla cannot be relied upon, whereas the maikel is just “being soimech on the maikilim” the very same logic dictates that the chumra is BETTER.
So, INTRINSICALLY everyone agrees that the kulla is NOT BETTER.
See the aforementioned Minchas Shlomo who brings a different reason from the TZLA”CH (if my memory serves me correctly)which proves my point as well.