Yeah I agree with mostly all of what you said. You've ended up agreeing with my point (if it was poorly conveyed I'm sorry).. but that's the exact point, it is too early to call it a success but you see this oftenly referred to as exactly that.
These ARE management techniques until they are cures, they are not cures until they are later disproven to be management techniques. It's incredibly irresponsible to mislead people in such a way. I realise it's not the OPs fault, it's the fault of the tab system.