You just need to clarify why they work: because most miners use them and there was not any usecase for big op_returns so far so nobody bothered to go direct to big miners.
The reason is definitely not that enough random dudes spined up knots nodes.
Excellent question for the "filters don't work" crowd:
Why are 81 byte op_returns three orders of magnitude less common than 80-byte ones?
Filterers know why: a filter filters out 81 byte op_returns but not 80 byte ones. But y'all say they don't work. Do you have *any* explanation? https://x.com/cguida6/status/1975273120287105531
Discussion
> there was not any usecase for big op_returns
Storing arbitrary data in the blockchain is the use case today and has been the use case for op_returns since 2014