I agree with FuturePOTUS that many times people who have been off come back stronger in their yiddishkeit than many others, in regards to what bmyer’s sarcasm about how everyone should go off -i dont think anyone was suggesting that, obviously if everyone went off that would make for a ton of aveiros and probably the majority would not end up coming back like Bochur 2.0, but that doesn’t mean that if someone did go OTD and come back he wouldn’t be stronger than most in some regards, after all he clearly is not just serving hashem because thats how he grew up or thats what everyone else is doing.

I think that if you’re having trouble understanding something the Chofetz Chaim said you should first think long and hard about it and ask a rov about it before dismissing it as wrong (sometimes you might find that there is an explanation of something that is very different than you thought) After taking these steps you might find that you actually agree with him, or you may find that there are other gedolim who argue, however if you cant find any other explanation/opinion then you probably should accept it as true even if you dont understand it.

of course they would be the first to know they have multibillion dollar space agencies researching these things, but why would they want to hide it if they found it?

there could be circumstances either way so it really depends, if we want to get super detailed though im sure you could come up with basic guidelines. i dont see any reason that you should ever have to tell (if you think it will give them a boost it might b nice) but but there might b times that it wouldnt b good to say anything

there arent any regulations on such things in lakewood, but i think they are a lack of kavod for the shul