The ability to make adjustments is a strength of science, of course.
I feel the same way about democracy, come to think of it.
As for Pluto, well... it's nice to have the clarification in hand, however it shook out. For the moment the public's own tendency to anthropomorphize makes it like losing a friend--and a rather sad little underdog friend at that. But after a while everyone will realize Pluto hasn't gone anywhere. And I know we're in for some exciting discoveries about KBOs. These new definitions are really the first step in a remodeling of our entire picture of the solar system.
For the next couple of years, though, some astronomers are going to get some serious hate mail from third graders.
Archer