Funny, that's the same answer the Points Per Game people made in response to those analysts saying PPG was overrated. They responded, for decades, that points is what wins the game and if you score more points than the opponent you win so it was the most important thing. They were wrong, but it took so very long for analytics to persuade people they were wrong. But finally, after decades, it's finally the consensus that the game is much more complex than the simplicity of that belief, with dozens of other factors, and it's measuring a combination of all the factors involved that leads to the "most important" stat.
And the same is for D&D. Damage is simplistic, it is subject to slogans like "dead is dead", and so it's the favored discussion point. Eventually, slowly, all the other factors will get factored in and we will get to advanced stats for D&D too. There are just too many actual statisticians and mathematicians who also like D&D that advanced stats (like Player Efficiency Ratings and Wins Above Replacement Player and stats like those) are inevitable. Though it will be more difficult as we don't have records of thousands and thousands of games to measure, nor consensus known best players through history as controls.
