Exactly. It's like fans of a certain team that disparaged South Carolina's national championship in 2017 because SC didn't play their team for the title that they were fans of. There were fans that used that thought process for years afterwards. It's the same exact thing, so I agree with your feelings of how strange that thought process was, and is.
I mean, South Carolina took care of IT'S business that tournament - played who was put in front of them, and beat them. But because this certain other team DID NOT take care of ITS business, DID NOT do what was expected of them, then somehow that diminished or penalized South Carolina for doing what the OTHER team could not.
Those fans somehow lifted up THEIR team for failing that tournament, by disparaging and putting down South Carolina for SUCCEEDING, in their twisted rationalization logic. Now, talking about "strange" - that was a Webster's dictionary version of it. And there are STILL fans of that group around that still believe this about that 2017 tournament. It's crazy - I definitely agree with you on that......