Fair enough! I don't pretend to have any expertise in this area, so I mostly was surprised to hear an analysis so contrary to what I've always heard to be the case. I could totally imagine that if there are others like me who just trust what they've heard, over time the narrative of "just use Defender" might become self-sustaining even if the status quo changes, so maybe this is a sign that I should look into things a bit more carefully next time I find myself using Windows.
Thanks for the informative response!