The same goes for Flatt, I believe. How high can she be ranked when she skates the two perfect program at worlds? Maybe 6th or so? Otoh, Mirai has a potential to beat even Mao. She was 4th in Olympic and also beat Mao at world last year already in short program.
This is true. At least in this case, one could argue that Rachael deserves the spot not only because of her Nationals result, but because she has fared a bit better than Mirai internationally, making the GPF, etc.
But in Ross Miner's case? There's just nothing there besides this Nationals finish... He doesn't have any good results yet and got lucky to beat a struggling Abbott with a clean LP.