‘What ifs’ are ridiculous. That thing was a TS when it hit land. It is what it is and what ifs are irrelevant. The MSM is treating it like it was a ‘what if’ when it actually was much ado about nothing.
What-ifs are only ridiculous after the fact. It hit Cat 3 status and was expected to stay at least Cat 2 throughout. It was a sheer turn of good fortune that it dropped to Cat 1/TS status before reaching them. It still caused a lot of damage and killed some folks - IF it hadn't reduce in strength first, it would have been horrendous.
How many hurricanes have you sat through and how powerful were they? If the answer is "none", you have no basis to form an useful opinion.