I am not sure if they played around with the numbers to make sure the winner, like they did in the old system. Although the author of this text says that the ordering might have made a difference, the judges don't need to "save" the high mark for the skaters who skate later in the current system. Unlike the older system, they don't need to decide the rank order. So I am not quite sure if this was the case. But still it may be possible that the overall impression may be affected by her SP performance and pre-event information that she is not 100%, which might have affected her PCSs.
Do you think that Yuna was slower than usual in her LP? Ppl were saying that Yuna didn't have the usual spark. I don't think she absolutely needed to have the spark and aura to have a higher mark here. But slower skating could hurt. I think she was very fast and smooth during the first part of the program. But towards the end around the time when she singled the lutz, she became slower. I felt that her stamina was running out. That might have hurt. In any case, I do agree that she still deserved better PCSs.
On the other hand, she might be lucky not having been called for UR on her 3S. Besides, her SP score, esp. PCS, looked over-marked. Her step sequences looked slow and lacked energy and she didn't really "perform" with joy as she usually did. Her high PCSs in her SP in previous events despite the mistakes were justified by her good presentation. But in her SP at this competition, she didn't have that.
So overall, perhaps plus and minus.
But Caro also might be lucky for not called for UR on any of her jumps and receiving that PCS despite being tired towards the end of the performance. I don't really think that she deserved that PCS in her LP although she was brilliant in SP.
BTW, I feel a bit sorry for Wagner who seemed to be upset about needing to skate early after Miki's withdrawal. I understand that Miki wanted to at least try. She seemed to be still deciding whether or not to perform right before and during the performance. I didn't think that it was a very rational or realistic decision for her to take the ice when she was already too injured to practice in the morning and the coach was telling her to withdraw. Perhaps she still thought that she could pull herself together and wanted to try. It also might have been unpredictable for her how the medication would affect her muscles during the performance. I could see her left leg not working properly after the Sal even though she looked fine and landing jumps during the warm-up. But it was unfortunate for Wagner to have this kind of unpredictability. Miki tried her best until the very last minute, which was courageous spirit. But Wagner couldn't predict what might happen until the very last minute, which was unfortunate. I recall similar events happening to a Canadian female skater after Tonya Harding's accident with boots and to Victor Petrenko in his SP after the previous skater's boots problem. Both were upset and neither of them did well after these incidents. Unfortunately the same scenario for Wagner. I am sorry about that. But things happen and perhaps she just needs to accept it that she was unlucky. Besides, there was a rumor circulating about Miki's withdrawal so that Wagner and her coach might be thinking of the possibility that this could happen. In any case, it was not the best scenario for her to have such a worry that she had no control over, on top of the pressure at the first Worlds. I am sorry about that. Japanese commentator Mr. Higuchi and the announcer at J-Sport were pretty sympathetic towards her although they did not mean to criticize Miki or anything. I hope that this is not going to be Wagner's first and last Worlds.