Yup, I agree
I will add this, there are managers out there that understand what the game engine is coded to read. I suspect most of the top 100 understand it, but because of the optics issue (mutants, draw manipulation), several managers believe it pure cheat that gets those groups so high. Therefore anything tactical gets dismissed.
Regarding my association, we have a pretty good grasp on some of the relationships in the orders. Used it to finish last season slightly above 1800 points. Granted playing 7 associations that relegated to Gold 1 helped alot. 1600 - 1700, it's really rare to find a very strong tactical group below this season-ending point range in my experience. Isolated good managers do exist, but it's seldom 4+ deep with strong tacticans.