Just because you can’t measure/model/hypothesize doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.
Yes. But it's a logical fallacy in reasoning that therefore, something does happen.
It's very close to the same type of reasoning that because an object which is flying can't be identified, it is therefore an alien spaceship.
The only reasonable solution for most people is keeping careful and accurate records.
This then allows some basic analysis of actual data.
Absolute trust in people's ability to establish certainty, in an activity with a distribution pattern result, overwhelmingly based on an analysis of single points of data and always corrupted by confirmation bias isn't what I'd consider to lead to accurate results.
It does however lead to homeopathic medicine, apple cider vinegar and eventually coffee enemas.
Yet, for a few dollars, actual data analysis can be had by most archers and many top archers and coaches recognise the value of collecting the data.
Archery is way behind a heap of other competitive fields in doing so. When it comes to the fields of competitive money making, competitive sports are so far behind that again, that's it's barely worth mentioning. When it comes to getting your money, billions of dollars of research know with absolute percentage chances of certainty on how to exploit the human inability to process statistical data.
In terms of being an equipment sport, that's an interesting observation because at some points it's true. At the top end however, it's not so much.
Because all the top equipment can be readily obtained, at the top end of things, the competitors have figured out what makes a difference. There are no massive statistical advantages based on equipment.
Obviously, the equipment is already capable of shooting perfect scores and has been for quite some time. Yet archers regularly exceed their best competition scores in practice. That's not equipment based performance.
The single most divisive thing that you can talk about in archery is to cast doubt on people's ability to actually perceive the truth about what is going on.
They will argue that they can.
Sometimes with a lot of anger.
Of course, when you can alter someone's belief in their performance by just telling them that you've done something to their bow, and you haven't, or you can adjust someone's bow and they can't tell, it does tend to make you realise why the advertising and gambling industries will never lose money.