I generally agree with you on a lot of things with regard to metrics, player efficiency, etc. But sometimes those metrics can be wildly off base (see: State, Ohio) due to anomalies that metrics don't account for.
Numbers can't measure chemistry. They can't measure matchups. They can't measure fight, or grit, or heart. They can't measure how many "answers" we have, to use a Pike-ism.
Mathematically, taking the four of clubs out of the average poker hand and replacing it with any other random card isn't going to be very impactful the vast majority of the time. Take it out of a hand that's already a flush, though, and the impact will be bigger than it would from the average poker hand.
We haven't shown that we have pieces that can consistently be put together into a new whole yet. There may still be time to, and there may not be.