I think the Flash is another good example. A while back, a lot of people concluded that he is absolute top tier because of a list of theoretical strengths. After he was buffed, the consensus was that he was broken or automatic Top 5 based on his damage, frame data, mixups and 50/50's, etc.
But then in practice, maybe he struggles with some things like range, etc or he's still vulnerable to other characters' BS. The practical evidence would suggest that maybe people were having a knee-jerk reaction to the buffs and prematurely predicting him to dominate the game.
Either that or.. Everyone is playing him wrong and just needs time to level up. But which is it? Or maybe it's somewhere in the middle
I feel like the jury was still out on the Flash and it'd be great to see how more great players do with him (and we may never get that chance pre-patch) -- but overall, it just seems like you need both the results and the theory to come to any kind of reasonable conclusions. People are to prone to rush into assumptions, and the real-world evidence is the only thing that helps keep them in check.