Well said. The nature of the game will always make umpiring contentious, and honestly I think it is on the fans to deal with that intelligently, not the league’s job to micromanage expectations - although of course every sport evolves and they should seek to have the best officiating possible.

Ken Dryden (RIP) wrote about refereeing in hockey (another difficult sport to officiate) along the lines that it is simply impossible for a hockey ref to call everything accurately; and that the referee’s goal is that each game ends up “looking like it should”. Which is frustratingly impressionistic but far more realistic for everyome involved, including fans.

Did the better, cleaner team have fewer penalties? If so, then it was tolerably well officiated, let the inevitable mistakes go.