Yes, that's an important distinction. At the same time, if VCs graded individual factors, those grades could themselves be rationalizations. For example, they want to meet a founder, and give high marks to the categories they think should be important, not the factor that actually influenced them.
They actually weren't "grading" per say. They were answering questions like "Have you seen anything else like this?" and rating teams with multiple choice answers like "This is one of the best teams I've seen." So, they kind of know how a company did, but it's not like they were looking at their own scores at the end.
