I agree Ray Ban.
"Everyone seems to know something or the other about airline flying and what pilots do, but not necessarily very much."
Now you professional pilots know how we feel when the armchair-experts/barrack-room lawyers go on about how lawyers and judges get it all wrong!
It's inevitable there'll be conflicting versions when there are several accounts of an incident like this, and I can understand how experienced passengers might feel (rightly or wrongly) entitled to comment about what happened in the cabin. But, how people who are not airline pilots feel able to give opinions on the Captain's decision to divert is beyond me. I'm not surprised; it happens to lawyers all the time.
Alty Meter made an interesting point re the 'smoking' PA turning a relatively minor incident into a drama. Any professionals agree with him that letting it go with a warning might have been the wiser option?