A simple stick and tape and a ride does not prove what they say are correct. There are people doing chest today that prove that the knot behind measuring the curvature of the earth is wrong. There are things that we can see that we should not be able to see that have that should have dropped below the curve of the earth yet we can see them.

I am not a part of the evil highee up so I can only speculate as to why they would do that and I don't think there's any place for speculation in this discussion.