They didn't encounter the real problems with throwing pots except theoretically. And theory doesn't throw a pot. The ones who threw lots of pots became experts at pot-throwing. That's hard to do theoretically. Policy and theory are pretty poor excuses for the practical experience that comes with disciplined focus on a problem, accompanied by actual everyday encounters in translating that disciplined knowledge into practice.
Experts are part of the team any effective democracy or system of law needs.
Disciplined knowledge of methodology to cover empirical approaches. Experience in translating theory into theoretical systems or research to address the problems of concern. Identification of knowledge deficits - holes that new discourse must fill in, but real holes, honestly explored, with good faith new knowledge claims brought to bear. Criticism that seeks not to aggrandize the new knowledge, but to fit it reasonably into the long development of knowledge, even when it suggests a course correction or a new path. And giants should not serve as Goliaths to our David, but as those who have gone before on whose work we must build, even when we must deconstruct some of that work to go on with the building.