This is what before and after looks like:
Take the lower left green box in the left picture (raw data). It represents 1 wrestler at #25 who AA'd in 1 of the 4 years that ranks went to 33 (2.5%). Does that mean that every four years we should expect to see that? Or is it more likely that we will see something similar every ten years or so (1%), or more (<1%)? If the later then the expectation would be that as time passes, we are more likely to see one #24, or one #26 achieve AA than another #25. The fitting process assumes the latter and accounts for this by effectively treating AA as a category rather than eight separate categories.
The other thing it achieves is to fill in more obvious discontinuities. For example, no #7 seed won between 2010 and 2023. Does that mean a #7 seed has no chance to win? Not likely given that winners have come from #8, #9, #11, and #13 seeds in that time.
And no #1 seed busted out in the blood round in my sample, but two busted out before in the round prior to the the blood round. So a 13-16 exit for a #1 seed is certainly possible, and on the right it is filled in.