I am aware.
Rabbi Bleich has an excellent article on the subject here
but then again maybe he’s just an armchair rabbi although I’d think a wider base of people would find this interesting.
Do you not?
I interpreted the OP as a critique but perhaps I misunderstood. This is not the first time, nor the first chief rabbi, so it's not so interesting unless you've never heard of this before. As the article you quoted clarifies- the precedent makes it difficult for the heintiger to refuse