Tom, if we all use your logic and reasoning, you literally have to already have a "treasure" in your hands for you to have enough evidence to even start looking so why are you even involved in such a hobby/forum? Do you metal detect? If so, why? You could never ever prove that there is something left behind by someone anywhere you look until you actually find it, so why even look, right? This forum has more drama and bickering between grumpy old men than the actual show will ever have. Maybe history is missing out on the real money making reality show? They could call it..."The curse of treasure forum: who is really right?!?!?"
Hey there Robert, welcome to T'net !
To answer your question: An bit of skepticism actually HELPS to find goodies. Not hinders. Why ? Because it keeps you from chasing stories where more plausible explanations exist. And where ..... once you realize the "treasure fever telephone game psychology", you can see to ferret that out.
I remember, for example, when I started this hobby in the mid 1970s to early 1980s : trying all sorts of lame md'ing sites in our area. That were supposed to have been yesteryear picnic sites, or swim spots on the river here, etc.... And one by one, having the "aha moments" , that ....... yes , perhaps the introduction of the freeway viaduct over the river at that point screwed things up. Or perhaps when they built the shopping mall over the stage stop site, that perhaps detecting the planter boxes in the parking lot was *not* going to produce old coins. Ie.: school of hard knocks.
And as time goes on, and I start to "poo-poo" some research out-the-starting gate (when I see such warning signs), then it actually INCREASES finds. Not decreases. Now I'm going on leads that can not be chalked up to telephone game ghost-story legends. Or picnic / camp/ stage stops that have not been hammered to death by yesteryear hunters, or have a shopping mall built over them.
Just got a 1778 Spanish One reale yesterday. And it was/is a function of being in the right-place at the right-time. Skepticism can pay off, to hone down your time to the most-likely-hunt spots.