Gore won very clearly by intent, if you reassign the absurdly anomalous votes for Buchanan to Gore in Palm Beach County (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/30/upshot/florida-2000-gore-ballot.html).

It's true that we don't know exactly how many of those votes were for Gore. It's also true that we don't know exactly which of those votes were for Gore. But that's irrelevant! We don't require people to put their names to their votes, and we don't care which votes are which as long as the total is enough! We know with far greater certainty that more than enough voters meant to vote for Gore than we know that there wasn't fraud or a mistake that flipped things somewhere else (even given the low chance of that).

If the law is written such that statistics can't be used to prove intent, or that voters can be disenfranchised even when their intent is completely clear and there is no doubt that they are allowed to vote, then that is where the problem lies.

Essentially, Gore lost because of innumeracy. One can argue who was innumerate (public, legislators, Supreme Court, etc.). But, basically, the U.S. didn't have Gore because it, collectively, is bad at math and/or bad at thinking. Which is kind of fitting, when you think about it. (But still sad.)