Will hill, agreed 100% about your description of gedolim. So when they declare that they made a mistake like Rav Shmuel Kaminetzky Shlit”a said, and when I hear that others said the same thing, I tend to believe them. Which gadol are you referring to who only switched because the leitzanus was toned down? Can you please provide a source? If anything, the ads this year had more leitzanus.
As for your confidence in what askanim can and cannot do, you are sadly mistaken. Most gedolim don’t go to concerts. They are forced to take the word of these askanim as to what goes on. The askan who put together last year’s ban was someone they knew and felt was reliable.
Will Hill, I admire your confidence that there was no such quote from the Chazon Ish, and I was mixing up. However, The quote came from the book “In Their Shadow” page 94, the book which had Rav Chaim Kanievsky affirm the veracity of almost all the stories within. In a machlokes between you and Shlomo Lorincz about what the Chazon Ish held about Neturei Karta, I’m forced to go with him. Here’s the exact quote:
“On another occasion, the Chazon Ish once described Neturei Karta as ‘Jews from before Mattan Torah’, meaning that their zeal was not shaped by the ways of the Torah. “
The preceding story about the Chazon Ish and NK mentioned that one of the younger members of a delegation that accused him of not being sufficiently anti-Zionist acted in an improper manner towards the Chazon Ish and did not live out the year.