It wasn't a quip that I made up to score points. I think it does undermine legitimacy of those making rules when it takes them 10 years to admit that they were

It wasn't a quip that I made up to score points. I think it does undermine legitimacy of those making rules when it takes them 10 years to admit that they were wrong. The problem is that it's something very public and that everyone already knows it doesn't cause problems. There are all kinds of electronic devices which don't have an "off" button. Do they somehow magically not create EM interference? Tons of people have been ignoring the rules for years and it's taken years and years for the FAA to say "well you know maybe it's OK" The problem there is that there are all kinds of nutjobs out there who use this kind of thing to promote their own crazy theories. And because the timeline to go from most people understanding empirically that electronics don't crash planes to the FAA admitting it was so long, it lends credence to the idea that any rule could be bullshit. If it takes 10 years to find out that something was overly cautious, who's to say it might not take 20 or 30 for something else? Those arguments can be very persuasive to people already inclined to be skeptical.