To your last point, I too will defer to the Gedolei Hador when it comes to manipulation and its appropriateness – when they are not deliberately misled into making tbeir decision. In this case. I am certain they would retract if they had real facts.
In any argument involving people who claim to defer to gedolim, there will always be those who defend their position by claiming that the gedolim were misled. I think it’s a bizayon to them to assume that they’re so naive, so that their opinion is worthless. They’re not so simpleminded to be constantly tricked by bad intentioned people.