Beliefs are easy to have by reality is hard to prove. People have all these stories about relics but I will tell you one story to make you think.
The guy who was running the crematorium in yangon who cremated a lot of people worked out that if he heated any persons body in a certain way and temperature he could make what burmese think are relics like arahanta. So that is interesting.
So hearsay is nice but doesn’t make it Truth. Superstition is alive and well in Buddhism but that is different to fact.
One of my teachers was Taungpulu Sayadaw. He was an extremely mindful and charismatic monk. Second most famous monk in Myanmar at that time in the 80s. He trained with the same meditation teacher as Mahasi Sayadaw in Thaton. So they were from the same meditation lineage. But Taungpulu sayadaw also taught 32 parts of the body meditation.
Ok so have you heard stories about Taungpulu Sayadaw and how he was an Arahanta? I know he wasn’t but in Burma people think he was. I have seen some amazing things happen around Taungpulu Sayadaw so even though I have first hand heard him say he wasn’t an Arahanta I can see why people would think he was. So he was a monk of great attainment so it is easy for people to believe stuff that is not accurate and it takes a long time to work it out and it doesn’t lessen my respect for him. But what people believe is just belief.
I still would love it if Mahasi Sayadaw was an arahanta but I have no evidence to confirm or deny it. So the argument that X was believed to be an Arahanta so everything he did and said is correct is not a proof. I always reserve judgement till I know.