However, if Maharaji were now to be offering something which was only a benevolent experience, without people having to mortgage up to the hilt, surrender their own judgement, and so on, would this be objectionable?

Tempora, I realize that you're committed to your spirituality which necessarily means looking at life through a soft-focus lens, but there's no excuse for this kind of ignorance.  You know full well that the "experience" Rawat offers is far from benevolent, that the cult does indeed suck as much money as it can from its members and that surrendering ones judgement is the only currency in which Rawat trafffics.