Why? It’s not like every model says the same thing.
I'd imagine because some of those model designers also have preconceived biases in favor of the players we deem "elite."
When someone designs a model and it says Heiskanen isn't top 10 while Makar and Fox are barely top 10, most model designers will think their model is flawed instead of recognizing that potentially those players aren't as good as previously thought. This may cause a lot of models to be thrown out before we see them, which furthers the notion that those players are good.
It's sort of like that famous picture of the plane with all the bullet holes which explains survivorship bias, we only see the models that say what we want them to because people will be overly critical of models that say the opposite.
A model that says Makar is the 9th best defensemen in the league this year is much more likely to be discarded than one that says he's top 2, especially when the narrative is that Hughes, the other top 2, is weak defensively and only contributes offensively. If the model that says he's 9th says that Makar is the worst defensively among the top 8, the community will ignore it because of their own preconceived biases that Makar is the stronger player defensively.
