The U.S. system has both research universities and teaching colleges. Some institutions are both (e.g., Harvard), but many are one or the other.

>when you see an official looking table that seems to support a controversial conclusion

I've presented some data. If you have contrary data, present it. Otherwise it's just your opinion, no? I mean, you dispute the metrics they use, but don't provide any of your own. What would be a better measure of the quality of teaching?