Americans like definitive results, if they are meaningless.
There is nothing more arbitrary in the world than a single-elimination playoff tournament. Yet, we judge careers based on the NFL playoffs (and the even more insane NCAA tournament - a single elimination tourney for 18 year old by which we judge the careers of 50 year old men).
I’m a Steeler fan so I’ll take it, but I always think back to that 2005 playoff game where Carson Palmer blew out his knee on the first play of the game. You play four months of football in order to have your season essentially decided on one random play.
The dirty little secret of sports is how random the results really are. An injury here, a bounce there. When you start looking at points differential you start seeing how small the gap between the good and bad teams really is, one score here or there is the difference between a “dominant” and a “bottom feeder”.