I don't think I missed your point. I think you might be backpedaling a touch. The thread is about goals in a season, sixty, and about benchmarks season to season with sixty being the hypothetical benchmark. There's no germane reason to talk about the potential of a player's seasonal output by hitching a position of reasonable observer who states that before Matthews (or any other player) hits 60 in a season, that we have to watch him cover 30, 40, then 50 in the SAME season in order to place a bet on 60. What's next an argument that states in order for 20 goal scorers to hit 20, first it's 5, then 10, then 15, then...??? That's...a hard sell.
To the bold, I think you're doing something similar to guaranteeing something (MM% no less) without knowing the facts behind it. You asked (rhetorically) if people wondered how many 70 goal seasons he'd have or if they wondered if he he'd hit 60, etc...? Well, it reads like you're claiming as though it would be unreasonable that people wondered such a thing and positing as an acceptable reality i.e. People didn't wonder about it because it wouldn't have been reasonable to do so.
And to set that record straight, oh yes they did. Mario came into the league as Gretzky's anticipated statistical rival right away. But before he entered the league, as a 15 year old phenom an agent told him to wear 66, to which, Lemieux later stated: "Ninety-nine upside down." the implication being obvious. Lemieux himself for years pointed to Gretzky as the best player, and his idol in fact. But very quickly -- VERY quickly -- Mario Lemiuex was absolutely part and parcel the conversational alter-ego to Gretzky. And the conversation was when, not if, Lemieux would begin to threaten Gretzky's totals.