A little contrarian thinking. The speed of ballistic intercepts is such that visual assessment from the ground is not very useful. And at least some intercepts happened at night, in clouds, etc.
Therefore, radar etc would be the tools to assess.
IF: Patriot didn’t work, the public disinformation claim would be to say it did work. Conversely, if Patriot was really good, why announce that? Why not play down the effectiveness? Keep the other guys uncertain.
Bottom line, those that really know aren’t talking.
The problem is that so many who don't know have increasingly loud voices; in an age where politicians and even military officials can have their judgment clouded by social media, the louder "know nothings" can cause the equivalent of white noise.