I was extremely confident that the polls showed a hidden support for Trump, and that the race was closer to 50-48 nearly the entire year. Which is where is ended up. The big difference this time was that Biden consistently polled around 50 from the time he announced. This was MUCH higher than Hillary polled. So even though I knew there was a hidden trump vote, I also knew it wasn’t going to be enough to win the popular vote, and that Trumps best hope was to win via the electoral college like in 2016.
Most polls are intended to form / manipulate public opinion - not simply to report on it.