THIS! I've made the same point before. In fact, I've taken it a step further: I believe Anya's three consecutive RusNats titles are the single most impressive accomplishment in modern ladies skating...perhaps even modern skating across all disciplines.
At the end of the day, a victory is only as impressive as the competition you had to triumph over. By this measure, any single one of Anya's RusNats titles is arguably more impressive than Alina's Olympic victory, Zhenya's Worlds titles, Aliona's GPF/Euros, etc.. (Before you disagree, take a second to think through whether the competition at these events was at nearly the same level as RusNats.)
Just think about some of the names Anya had to beat to win her RusNats titles: Trusova, Kostornaia, Valieva, Zagitova, Medvedeva, Tsurskaya, Tuktamysheva, Samodurova, Usacheva...and on it goes. I can't think of any international competition in recent years that was tougher to win than RusNats has been the past three years. And Anya came out on top not only once, but ALL THREE TIMES. It still blows my mind.
So, yeah, I find it tough to take seriously anyone who would question Anya's bona fides. They're clearly not knowledgeable enough about skating to understand that Russian domestic events have surpassed international events. I mean, yeah, winning an event like the Olympics is cool from a "historical significance" and PR standpoint, but go back and look at the competitors from Pyeongchang and ask yourself if it was really that impressive compared to what Anya has accomplished with RusNats.