When games that are losses for the AI from humans are included, the bug is fixed.
You’re not grasping the fundamental problem here.
This is like saying a calculator understands math because when you plug in the right functions, you get the right answers.
The AI grasps the strategic aspects of the game really well. To the point that if you don’t let it “read” deeply into the game tree, but only “guess” moves (that is, only use the policy network) it still plays at a high level (below professional, but strong amateur)
How does it “understand the strategic aspects of the game really well” if it can’t solve problems it hasn’t seen the answers to?