An objection to the stricter meeting criterion might claim that even after a proven meeting there remains a theoretical possibility that a particular report was not heard, so all ʿan narrations should be rejected. This confuses abstract logical possibility with the weight of real transmission evidence.
When actual contact is established and complications such as tadlis are absent, that evidence carries weight beyond a purely hypothetical possibility. It does not follow that every ʿan-chain must be rejected.
Contrast: overlapping life spans, an actual meeting, and direct evidence disproving hearing of the particular report are three different evidentiary situations. Hadith criticism cannot flatten them into one.