A good, respectful post.
And I agree that to make a claim it should be supported.
That said, I'm also the kind of person that believes that people who have a reputation don't callously risk that hard earned rep with frivolous claims, and I also tend to give people the benefit of the doubt, especially when they've worked hard on something.
I'm not a grower and have no dog in this fight. I'm actually using pepperlover's fantastic Moruga Scorpions in my 4th flavor and they are plenty hot enough - so if there's truly something hotter it's not going to effect me one way or another.
But as I've mentioned before in here, this grower is pretty well known, and as you mentioned has the support of some other reputable folks in the industry, so "wait & see" might be the best course of action.
And if the worst case scenario happens, and this proves to not be the new hottest pepper, shouldn't we also allow the grower the opportunity to be stand up about it an say "hey, sorry, I was wrong"?
That seems like the fair course of action to me