AMA is incomparable to anything society had experienced before and it is that way because ordinary me could ask anything unordinary them.
That is unprecedented, and the other part, the answers, are just an usual part of the process - "unordinary they" could use and have used all the tools society has developed since the beginning how to not answer if that suits them. That's called diplomacy.
You're having some strange attitude toward politics and politicians, precisely you're thinking there's some kind of consequences that block politicians' "honest" approach to things.
So with the AMA too, you're kind of thinking some politician would tell you things in four eyes differently than they would do in front of the millions.