I think the right way to say it is everyone projected the fourth title.
The question we debated here and on HR was where would Lee rank among four timers. We collectively had the mindset he would win four. It is then very hard to start thinking of him as somewhere below other three timers when we were talking about him being better than some four timers just a day, or a week, or a month earlier.
Assimilating new information and using it to replace prior knowledge is difficult.