Mark Williamson said:
Exactly - it helps others realise that the crackpot is
a crackpot.
What if the crackpot opens a RfC to get other people's opinions about
who is correct, and they all agree with the crackpot because his
version of the truth "sounds better"? Thus the crackpot version gets
written into the article semipermanently, and any further attempts by
the smart person to remove it from the article will be seen as
anything from a troublesome annoyance to vicious vandalism.
The smart person, being a smart person, will realise that he has failed to
persuade, and will henceforth exercise his persuasive skills to the extent
that, being smart and (one is presuming here) demonstrably correct, he
will prevail.
Or else, being a smart person, he could realise he was wrong.