Non-practicing Catholic here: We were taught that the RCC is the one, true church, the purest connection to God. And I mean it was ingrained when I was taught, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth. We abandon the Church at our mortal peril.
So, I find it plausible that someone resolves their cognitive dissonance by concluding the Church is true, but has always been led by imperfect humans. So, still participating but rejecting the bad stuff as corruptions, not God’s will—a particular version of cafeteria Catholicism, IOW.