Ellott Waves are ALL ABOUT human irrationality, Elliott himself said so - this is true for other TA techniques as well - projected onto a mass, human psychology becomes a foreseeable force way more predictable than it could be on an individual basis.
As to price manipulation, that's of course another matter, and you should be prepared to encounter manipulation where you least expect it, or at least where you would have hoped to never encounter it, and not just from whales...