por- a quick reply to your post. Rav Hutner’s words were about the Holocaust, not the medinah. He actually lived there the last years of his life.
As far as R’Elchonon goes, no one knows what he would have thought would he have remained alive, especially if he would have been able to go live in Eretz Yisroel and prosper there again. But, equally, you cannot bring an actula “rayoh’ from his words to the contrary. This is why I said that what he wrote is irrelevant to the actual facts of the medinah. There is no burden of proof on anyone. he said what he said way before the Holocaust and the founding of the medinah.
The fact that the Satmarer rebbe earned enormous respct is neither here nor there. Rav Kook and Rav Sonnenschein and the Gerrer rebbe were very respectful of each other. Neither agreed with the other’s hashkafa.