An associated issue is al-jarḥ ghayr al-mufassar: criticism of a transmitter stated without explaining the precise grounds. Whether such criticism is decisive depends on critical principles and the contextual evidence.
This matters for mastūr narrators because an unexplained negative label need not settle every question concerning someone’s state. Conversely, the absence of elaboration does not make every criticism baseless.
An investigator considers who issued the criticism, what that critical expression signifies, what other informed critics report, and the status of the individual transmission. The principles of jarḥ wa-taʿdīl cannot be reduced to mechanically counting favorable or unfavorable labels.