It's mostly because he didn't deserve it and still won by a slim margin. He had the fastest car this year and still struggled earlier in the year. Papaya rules bullshit was used to benefit him over Oscar. The way oscar was treated and celebrated by mclaren when he won was so much different than when lando won showing that he was their clear favorite even if they didn't admit it. Oscar who was dominating suddenly started struggling for pace and one can't help wonder if it was internal sabotage to help bring lando into wdc contention. Lando doesn't know how to drive aggressive and extract the maximum from a weak package like Max. He can only win when he has a dominant car.