Low Cost Eng,
You make a valid point but I would say that most passengers are not aviation 'fans' (I do not include tampabay because I do not know whether or not he/she is) and I would venture that most would absorb only that 'there was a problem to do with the flaps or something'.
I doubt whether many would take opn board that it only turned out to be a faulty indication rather than actual problems with the flaps, even if they were later told this. And how many members of the public are aware of the flaps' function anyway?
That's the problem. Any incident like this and most people look upon it as a black mark for the airline, whereas the airline will quite properly argue that the contrary is the case and they were making sure that their passengers' safety was paramount.