These takes aren’t totally opposite. Elo is capped due to the way it treats draws, but there’s other metrics that can be devised, where “significantly better” is still viable. For example, how close to a perfect game (with no tied positions becoming game-theoretically lost, or winning positions becoming game-theoretically tied) does the AI play? And ignoring matches where there are ties, only paying attention to games where either player wins, you remove the ceiling.
These takes aren’t totally opposite. Elo is capped due to the way it treats draws, but there’s other metrics that can be devised, where “significantly better” is still viable. For example, how close to a perfect game (with no tied positions becoming game-theoretically lost, or winning positions becoming game-theoretically tied) does the AI play? And ignoring matches where there are ties, only paying attention to games where either player wins, you remove the ceiling.