Unfortunately in this day and age the biggest worry I ever had during a emergency was answering to the powers that be whether it was Air Force superiors or the FAA. I was so well trained that it was rather easy to handle the emergency. It was second guessing the Monday morning quarterbacks that was hard. I have had dispatch try to lead me down the garden path before too, but you still have to ask their opinion-sometimes they have info you don't. With current data-link capabilities they often much better tech info than you do. the smart thing to do is get all the relevant info you can and then make your own decision. As far as the guy with the blown tire pressing on across the country, that would have been just stupid because retracting the gear would have been a bad idea for the afore mentioned reasons, and he didn't have enough fuel to make it with the gear down. Going on to LAS or DEN or wherever he could have stopped for gas would have been stupid for a lot of reasons such as inconveneincing the passengers when the plane was grounded for various break and wheel replacements.