I find it curious that, no matter how disfunctionally they may have lived, events of well-known people are assigned more weight by the masses than those of solid, ordinary people ... unless, of course, they are accused of wrongdoing. This principle also seems true when evaluating personal opinions ... we initially believe in the person and only after negative results do we question their judgement.
I suppose the simple answer is that such has been the case since the beginning. The Bible would suggest that Eve believed in the snake and in turn Adam believed in his mate. This may be important when reviewing the discontent of current and former JWs on this site. One cannot but wonder if it been this same undeserved respect for family heads and outsiders in power which has contributed greatly to the resentment oft-expressed here.
Are we actually angry at ourselves for giving too much credit as regards words directed toward us by those convinced they were on a mission from God? As a result of this deflating experience, have we now gained the freeness of will and speech to evaluate all things individually on the basis of merit rather than the source. That would indeed be a good thing!