And the current state of affairs is that Liu fired her coach despite getting very lenient scoring from the judges this season. Two Japanese have been the victim of very harsh scoring on the other hand, Higuchi and Kawabe. Higuchi's free the other day was grossly underscored and Im sure you'll agree far better than anything Liu is capable of. Of course scorong isn't only a product of nationality, but more of Fed support, which Liu has and those 2 don't. Btw, on her best day Daleman wouldn't be top 10 today. She was barely better most of the time than sloppy ass Osmond. LolI have. Matsuike has nice skating skills and lovely arms but I think Liu has better expression and projection. Matsuike has very tidy skating but I'm not excited by her yet. There's something generic about her, and she loses steam towards the end of her programs, which adversely affects her jumps. She has potential, but she's not better than Liu IMO.
You also don't have to patronize me. Just because I disagree with you doesn't mean I'm not watching the skating. I could just as easily retort that while you might be watching, you're never actually watching with your bias aside (which you've definitely made clear affects your assessment of these skaters). You might say the top 5 or 6 Japanese girls skate better than Liu, which is correct if the Japanese girls actually complete their tech content but that rarely happens. You admit that the Japanese have grossly underperformed in big competitions lately and yet you seem so assured that they deserve to be in the top 10 or ahead of Liu, who has underperformed but still consistently cleared 200s which not many Japanese skaters can boast this season. You might like the skating of those Japanese skaters more than Liu, which is fair, but that doesn't rank them ahead of her. For example, Miyahara is miles ahead of Liu artistically, but I wouldn't rank her higher given her technical struggles. Kihira is a better skater than Liu, but she's injured and having learned that she's barely jumping lutzes and flips, let alone 3A/quads, I would currently rank her behind Liu. Rankings are about results/placement/positions, not necessarily who the best figure skater on their best day is. Otherwise Kostornaia should be higher because of her potential, and skaters like Daleman might be in the top 10 if they were in their prime. You have to look at the current state of affairs.