The article sounded to me to be theorizing rather than hypothesizing.

This is the Difference Between a Hypothesis and a Theory. ... In scientific reasoning, a hypothesis is an assumption made before any research has been completed for the sake of testing. A theory on the other hand is a principle set to explain phenomena already supported by data.
Merriam-Webster › words-at-play
Hypothesis vs. Theory: The Difference Explained | Merriam ...

One way I think people bastardized the word theory is like the way people believe in the big bang theoritical myth. There is supporting data for the big bang myth but it is not absolutely certain.

@Word "not absolutely certain" -- NOTHING in science fits that category !

A 'myth' has NO (actual credible) supporting data.

The word 'believe' is fraught with 'issues' -- "I believe I'll have a cupa joe"

@FearlessFly yes, people bastardized the word believe, too.

Believe verb - accept (something) as true; feel sure of the truth of.

"I accept as true(believe), I'll have a cupa joe".

Myth - a traditional story, especially one concerning the early history of a people or explaining some natural or social phenomenon, ....

The fact it is a story, is some form of data. The fact the story is told or written does not mean the story is true but nonetheless it is infact data.

Certainty (also known as epistemic certainty or objective certainty) is an epistemic property of beliefs which a person has no rational grounds for doubting.[1] One standard way of defining epistemic certainty is that a belief is certain if and only if the person holding that belief could not be mistaken in holding that belief. Other common definitions of certainty involve the indubitable nature of such beliefs or define certainty as a property of those beliefs with the greatest possible justification. Certainty is closely related to knowledge, although contemporary philosophers tend to treat knowledge as having lower requirements than certainty.[1] wikipedia

Science comes from meaning a way of knowing.

Certainty is closely related to knowledge,

Can you absolutely know knowledge by some way, science?

@Word I would say that calling a story/myth in-and-of itself 'data' a bastardization of the word data.

"knowledge" and "certainty" are historic/current philosophical 'discussions'. Here is a good course (available in my library) on that and related 'issues' (especially in science) :

[thegreatcourses.com]

@FearlessFly data is defined as: facts and statistics collected together for reference or analysis.

A story is information (synonymous with data) that is collected together for reference and can be analyzed.

Data is information. Information is knowledge. The stories are purported to be things known of the authors knowledge of something you call myth.