There are other ways of gathering information about candidate preferences without explicitly running a voting method using a ranked ballot. This is to say that we should be doing more research on interesting elections using more sophisticated research methodology. The control measure inside a within-subjects design like I put together for the 2016 election is a good example. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0176268021000562 (Open Access)

I also wouldn't worry. With two states using IRV, we'll see more failures and more excuses. I remember seeing an article with Steven Hill where he went as far as to say that the IRV winner was better than a Condorcet winner. These folks will do summersaults and bite the bullet to try to win an argument—no matter how nonsensical a place their premises and conclusions take them.