Judges invariably go with a probation department's recommendation -- It is pro forma. According to one study from that time, in the very few times when judges haven't kept to plea bargains, it's been in cases of repeat offenders.
After Polanski was released from Chino, and while waiting for the sentencing hearing, his lawyer learned that the judge was going to renege on the deal.
With ordinary people, non-celebrities, it's generally not a problem because should the plea bargain fall through, the defendant has the right to withdraw the plea and go through with a trial. The public wouldn't necessarily know anything about the case, and any potential jurors wouldn't have heard, "He confessed so he must be guilty! Hang him!" (innocent people confess all the time, difficult as it is for many to believe).
With Polanski, how do you unring that bell?
There was so much wrong with this case, from prosecutorial misconduct to the judge's inappropriate ex parte communications, that to persecute Polanski for thirty+years for a crime that he wouldn't have done any time for had he been Roman Smith is really all about distracting the masses, bread and circuses.
About Roman Polanski
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