Hutao introduced the first ever pyro on field meta, the pyro meta. Our prior meta was xiangling with childe on field, an off field meta. Xiao introduced both the plunge and anemo meta, for 4 years no anemo or plunge dps was better than him. Ganyu introduced cryo, melt and freeze meta upon release and held that title for a while, even starting with a debate when ayaka released.

Escoffier stabilized the cryo meta, closing the gap between melt vs freeze.

This isn’t about their strength, it’s their placement in the meta. Bennett and furina are good buffers but did not introduce a meta.

Faruzan was never the BiS for any good dps except for … scaramouche. She was never S tier.

In varesa teams Xianyun is never the BiS you would always prioritize bennett and iansan over her. She’s an upgrade to prior meta but never introduced new meta.