This is probably a better way of explaining what I was trying to say earlier. While yes, math is objective, how it's used is subjective and someone's opinion, therefore, the result is subjective and someone's opinion. Ergo, using math isn't any better of a metric than someone's opinion on how something feels, or how it works narrative, etc. The only real metric is, "does it work for you at your table?" We as a group (gamers) tend to over-analyze everything we can get our hands on, IMO.
For example, let's say someone says, "2+4+8 = 14. You can't argue with that. And 5+8 = 13. So obviously there's no balance there because 14 is more than 13." The subjectivity of that is how you're choosing your numbers. Maybe in someone else's game, 4 never comes up, but 3 does. So for them, it's 2+3+8 compared to 5+8. So while the numbers are objective, it's flawed to look at them in a vacuum because they change depending on playstyle preferences and other things that may occur or not occur in a game session.