A ranking conceals how far apart its neighbors actually are.

A list of positions tells you the order and hides the distances. First and second may be separated by a hair, while second and third are separated by a chasm. Ranking converts a landscape of varying gaps into evenly spaced steps, and the evenness is entirely an artefact of the format.

Whenever a ranking is being used to decide something, ask for the underlying scores. If the top several are effectively tied, choose on other grounds. Treating a narrow lead as a meaningful gap is one of the more common ways good decisions get made for bad reasons.