In their defense, a lot of lay Catholics are extremely ignorant of the mystical and theological foundations of their religion.

That's not really how it works. Benedict XVI himself famously said that the Holy Spirit doesn't choose the pope directly, it just makes sure that whoever the Cardinals select isn't a complete nutter who destroys the Church. Read up on the bad popes, we've had literal murderers and men who bought the papacy. John XII was absolutely wild.

Sidenote, a lot of people get papal infallibility completely wrong when dunking on tradcaths. Yes, Catholic doctrine holds that the pope can be infallibe, when speaking ex cathedra. That's not when the pope gets asked something in an interview, it's a whole thing with a whole celebration and ritual for when they declare a new dogma of the Church. This has only happened twice, to establish 2 doctrines: the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption. That's all any pope has said infallibly. Everything else a pope has ever said is just pastoral guidance from the most important figure in the Church, who is still very fallible.