I don't think it's surprising that an untenable claim could persist within a field for a long time, once established. Pluto was called a planet for seventy-six years.
I've no idea whether the critique of g is accurate, however.
That's a bizarre choice of example. The question of whether Pluto is a planet is entirely a definitional one; the IAU could make it one by fiat if they chose. There's no particular reason for it not to be one, except that the IAU felt the increasing number of tranNeptunian objects made the current definition awkward.
This thread is for the discussion of Less Wrong topics that have not appeared in recent posts. If a discussion gets unwieldy, celebrate by turning it into a top-level post.
Part 2