"let's recognize a good man and his ideas when they occur and are expressed."

We can and we should do exactly as you suggest.  Yet it is very difficult not to be cynical about advisory groups in the Church. 
An  advisory group was uncomfortable with the claim of papal infallibility.  It happened anyway.
An advisory group saw no problem with artificial birth control.  Paul VI ignored them.
An advisory group was created to deal with predatory priests.  When Marie Collins quite in frustration, all we got from Francis was silence.
Let us applaud Cardinal Arborelius.  But we must also recognize that he is addressing a group of leaders who find themselves in a hole and are determined to keep on digging.  Deaf ears are deaf ears, no matter how much we wish it were otherwise.