When a Rav says something that is demonstrably wrong and people insist that he is correct, for he represents the Torah and the Torah is always correct, it forces thinking people to come to one of two conclusions: Either the Torah is true but makes no sense to human beings or the Torah is חס ושלום untrue.
Both are NOT the desired conclusions we want people to reach. We want people to see the eternal wisdom and logic of the Torah. Anyone has ever sat in front of a Gemara for five minutes knows that the goal is to try to understand so that it makes sense. Why should the Torah stop making sense when we close the Gemara?
I must add that just because it appears at first glance that a Rav is mistaken it doesn't mean that he is. But if the evidence shows that he is wrong and other great scholars say he is wrong then it is likely that he is wrong. The way to preserve the integrity [in the sense of "whole"] of the Torah is integrity [in the sense of "honesty"].
