What I am gleaning from a lot of these posts is the following issue, and I think I might have raised it here or maybe just had a conversation with some friends. I dont remember.
Clearly, we must be talking about non-halachic questions here since no-one would doubt any godol’s learning (ok, I am sure some would so I will confine my remarks to those well known and aknowledged gedolim) So we must be talking about asking gedolim about worldly issues. Current events maybe, or monetary transactions. Maybe changing a career.
So the issue as I see it is : Does daas torah give the gadol a special insight, a type of nevuah if you will, so that the answer they give you is correct on account of their total immersion in torah? That being so holy gives them the ability to give you (so to speak) G-d’s answer? Or is their sage advice worthy of being followed because as a consequence of learning torah, they have developed a keen insight into worldly matters and have exceptional logic/analytically skills? The difference being, that if it is the latter, any well trained scientist or mathematician, or anyone with a great analytical mind could give you an answer. If it is the former however, only someone steeped in torah could give you the guidance thatG-d wants you to have.
I dont know what to think. It definitely a difficult question. I would hazard to guess that its probably the former and that overuse/abuse by those surrounding the gadol tends to dilute the magnitude of that rav’s answers/opinions in our eyes. We get weary of hearing that godols name with every little small naarishkeit. Case in point: the Lipa ban. Lots of fist shaking and pashkevil writing. But at the end? Gornisht. So we start to think, uh oh, these gedolim are starting to sound a bit over the edge, when they are not. Their name is being smeared because the folks AROUND them are using the force of daas torah (their name) to support naarishkeit.
I’m not sure if this was as eloquent as it could have been, but I tried.