Michael Vassar once suggested: “Status makes people effectively stupid, as it makes it harder for them to update their public positions without feeling that they are losing face.”
Giving someone epistemic tenure could make someone more willing to generate and speak “risky” ideas, but could also make them feel that they have even higher status and therefore more face to lose and therefore more “stupid” in various ways. (Aside from Michael’s explanation, here’s mine: “once you achieve high status, a part of your mind makes you lose interest in the thing that you achieved high status with in the first place. You might feel obligated to maintain an appearance of interest, and defend your position from time to time, but you no longer feel a burning need to know the truth.”)
I think there’s another tradeoff here. From High Status and Stupidity: Why?:
Giving someone epistemic tenure could make someone more willing to generate and speak “risky” ideas, but could also make them feel that they have even higher status and therefore more face to lose and therefore more “stupid” in various ways. (Aside from Michael’s explanation, here’s mine: “once you achieve high status, a part of your mind makes you lose interest in the thing that you achieved high status with in the first place. You might feel obligated to maintain an appearance of interest, and defend your position from time to time, but you no longer feel a burning need to know the truth.”)