Since you went there. 
The only purist we have is G-d. Man is corrupt. Everything he has touched has been corrupted in one way or another. That is why I don't trust any text written by man. Instead of trust but verify if should be verify then trust.
"Man is corrupt?" Man is prone to corruption, but man has been given the tools by God to avoid it - in some rare cases, completely. There's an important difference and I strive for accuracy when I can.
I don't trust text written by man, either. Unfortunately, there are enough examples of well-meaning corrections that nevertheless come from prejudices or personal opinions that may or may not be shared by the target audience - much less malicious changes coming from people that have no business making those changes.
My
opinion is that changes to Dahl are the latter. But I'd like to think that my "hands off"
shita would apply regardless.
Lastly, regarding trust: in my circles, you often find that groups of people try to shove their opinions down the throat of others. (They are usually well-meaning. Sometimes they aren't, but mostly, they are. It isn't relevant when they are so mistaken, though.) Often, they will use some sort of quote from a Rabbi who is more universally accepted, even by me, to prove their opinions are correct. Do you think I lay down and surrender when they do that? No. I didn't verify that the Rabbi said what they say he said. Should I assume their quote is correct just because they say so? I have my own Rabbis (who are students of the bigger Rabbi), and I leave it to them to interpret those instructions (or to say that they personally heard the opposite). Even when it comes to my Rabbi, Rabbi Berkovits, I will often hear others quoting him in some way that does not sit well with me. Naturally, I try to confirm, and Rabbi Berkovits denies it. (Sometimes he can even explain why they went wrong, but often the message is so warped that the explanation eludes him.)
So I don't trust most people. Luckily, I am satisfied with the circle of people who have proven that they deserve my trust. There are people who, in my experience, have overcome their desires to serve only themselves enough that they have a clear, unbiased view of the world. (They all deny this, but that is part of the qualification.)
That's also why I don't want people messing with the text just because they think so.
