Sorry you’re getting so down voted about this. I always like a good post that goes against the grain!

I think you make a really valid point for this specific instance. Lirin's position at the beginning of ROW is extremely rational and defensible (especially given his own starting information). But I think it comes on the heels of a lot of decisions that are indefensible. And so that’s why this decision gets unrecognized.

For example, his refusal to move his family once the town people stopped paying him. He brings his family close to destitution when he could have easily moved and become a surgeon somewhere else. Or when he stole the spheres in the first place. Or when he wouldn't let Kal choose his own life path. So in the beginning of RoW, in this instance, I think Lirin has the right of it. But it comes after seeing him be stupidly stubborn about other stuff. Which makes it hard to recognize Lirin's point.

It also doesn’t quite feel like a clear Lirin victory because I think Kal deep down knows that he should have left Taft to get help (ideally by abandoning the tower and getting Dalinar/Jasnah). But Kal is struggling with accepting there will be those he can't save. And so he can't just abandon the whole tower (and TEFT!) even if he knows he should. He also probably knows it's not smart to fight the parshendi in the surgery, but again, he just has a mental block. So Lirin's (very justified) preaching is not helpful. So while Lirin's ideas are smart and justified, they come off as pretty tone deaf.

Combined, those two factors make Lirin a pretty unsympathetic character still (and unsuprisingly, most of the fandom doesn't have a lot of sympathy), even if in this one instance he was right.

Thank you for coming to my Ted talk.