I'm pretty sure every moment if this game us acting without complete knowledge. Even scum doesn't have complete knowledge of the setup. It wasn't the act of going after the claim. Even if we couldn't claim at all we're constantly without complete knowledge. The exception to this would be if the game was open set up.
I understand not liking claims, and I understand sometimes people rely too much on claims, but I don't think this was the case this game. I even actively questioned the claim. However, I can't quite say I know how the game would go if claims weren't allowed. Unfortunately games that aren't "Everyone is Vanilla" lead to claims of some sort. Thats how information is given. Even if it's just the cop saying "I KNOW X is mafia" a d they aren't outright claiming.
I'm fully aware, but it's generally a given that the Mafia actually have more information than the town since several of the roles in the game are confirmed to them and they usually know who their allies are. The game is absolutely about playing based on a lack of information, but really that's exactly the point: If you at any point assume you
do actually know anything for certain, you've already made a mistake in playing the game. The only players who know
anything for certain are Mafia, Masons, and Cops or similar investigative roles, and even then they only know so much.
As I have said, claims are usually underpowered or overpowered depending on setup; in games with hidden setups and lots of roles, or games where Mafia are provided with fakeclaims (or really just games without flavor at all), claims are close to worthless in a lot of cases.
I would actually say in this game that claiming was overpowered (or at least close to it), is the thing; claims pretty much screwed us out of safety by process of elimination. It's just that the role interactions got weird enough that you guys misinterpreted the claims. The town in general relied a bit too much on the idea that you they knew what the role's significance was and how it would interact with other roles. So clearly, even in a game where claims are very powerful, their use is still sketchy.
Let me ask you this: Had I implied I was Mt. Lady, and described a hobo power of getting written scenes implying things about the night events, and provided them to you guys, would you have believed it?