Excellent post. We constantly receive information in the mode of "broken telephone". The fundamental points are in the nuances, which did not reach us, if we rely only on media, and do not study the primary sources. This applies not only to medicine and to science in General...
"Scientists have found a cure for cancer! NASA discovered a planet with organic life! Microsoft has created a quantum computer!"
But as you rightly pointed out, the key words are: potentially + theoretically and hypothetically