Why couldn't the GB just say the number is figurative but there are still two classes and only God knows who is heavenly bound and who is not.
They can still say the figurative number indicates a smaller amount and not all dubs will be selected by God for the heavenly calling. As long as the number of partakers stayed relatively low compared to overall publisher numbers everyone would buy it. If the partaking numbers got out of hand they could have new light that all partake but still only a small number go to heaven. Just by separating partaking from automatic heavenly hope they could solve the issue (which they already do anyway by calling most partakers mentally unstable every year).