Your esteemed Dr. Waite does not recognize one very important fact.
John Calvin's Commentaries were devotional in nature. Even Jacob Arminius declared the excellence of them.
John Calvin's Institutes contained his systematic theology. Never once did Calvin claim that the theology so carefully defined in the Institutes was defective. Not once did he repudiate their content.
Only those who are looking for some type of disagreement between the devotional content of the Commentaries and the systematic nature of the Institutes see a contradiction, or claim that Calvin "softened" his approach.
The fact that there are those who claim these things arises from the fact that they cannot "logically" see how his systematic theology fits with his devotional material. They proclaim "You can't offer the Gospel to all, it just doesn't make sense!"
Do I understand you to be saying that Calvin felt free to teach error in his devotional material???? Seems quite odd to me.
By the way, Waite is esteemed. ThD AND PhD. I don't have those. Do you? (Ignore this if your words weren't intended to be sarcastic.)