Coming to yuor question, i would never like to have ahierarchial clergy in sunni Islam, it is death of independant thinking. See what happened to shia clergymen who opposed Khumeini, they were removed from status of marjia.
Wrong. There is no religious establishment in the world as independent as the Shia clergy who are free from government establishment financing or supporting them. All their finances come from the khums sent by the people.
Syed Khomeini was opposed by right, left, and center, and by some of the big names as Syed Khoei, Syed Baqir as Sadr etc. I am unaware of anybody being removed from the status of marja. By the way, how could one "remove" a marja? kill all of the muqalideens?