What do lay Christians think of apologists and theologians who readily admit to errors in scripture?

Since the Bible is constantly being fact-checked by historians and archaeologists, revised facts are inevitable. Which is why we're constantly getting "New" or "Revised" Bibles. The "Biblical inerrancy" crowd goes with the latest corrections, which are the closest to historical truth. But any Bible student should be able to sort out the latest verified facts from the earlier research. If there's a contradiction, like you have pointed out, just stay with it. Maybe a new set of facts will turn up in your lifetime! Otherwise, the scholars just leave the contradictions in place until new research says otherwise.