Yeah, they have made mistakes in the past, sometimes wildly wrong things and got into tiffs with the devs over their methodology (one racing game I recall). They use software to determine resolution since output resolution stays consistent, but render resolution can vary (you are always looking at the resolution your console is set to, but the frame is often upscaled to the output, so their methods are typically based on edges where colors vary distinctly, and not all games are easy to determine). They are a significant part of the reason the whole 1080p vs 900p debate was a thing back in early last gen, most people couldn't tell the difference otherwise - all it did was fan the fanboys on.
When it comes to fancy features, they love to talk tech, but most of the time they are just looking for artifacts that indicate certain tech, such as ray tracing and whether shadows get hidden when an object is completely out of view or how light bounces off walls to illuminate other things (in other words, educated guessing).
It kind of comes down to what you think of the output, sometimes less sophisticated tech implemented cleverly can often emulate or even surpass the new hotness - especially in a fast paced game.