Back in 1948 the proof was in that it was some political officer’s newspaper account, and not true. But they decided to just leave it be.
I’m guessing at least 80% of our recorded history is nothing like what we think it is. That trend has especially kicked into high gear after the film industry took off.
Lot’s of fantastic movies choose artistic license over truth.
In Young Guns at the end, when Billy shoots Murphy between the eyes, it didn’t happen. In reality, Murphy died of cancer several months later. And Josiah Gordon “Doc” Scurlock (Kiefer Sutherland) didn’t steal Murphy’s Chinese girl before being shot dead. He married a mexican woman and moved to Texas where he lived until 1929.
And Fighting Sullivans is a fantastic movie, and a tear jerker to be sure, but the death of the boys was very inaccurate.
And those Knights of the Round Table? The round table has no basis in fact, and it’s not even proven that Arthur existed. Lancelot was never heard of until about 700 years later until French poet Chrétien de Troyes’ mentions him in the 12th century.
No matter the society, we always get the most romantic, gallant, and inspiring story. If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.
e.g. in 1941's "Sergeant York", actor Gary Cooper portrayed York's turkey hunting strategy against German troops as a gobble call to cause the German troops to raise their heads in curiosity above their trench cover whereupon he shot them in the head. In reality he spotted a column of German troops on the move and applied the turkey hunting strategy of shooting the last man in the column so the others in front just kept moving without knowing their comrade{s} had fallen.