The people who don't know what they are talking about (or are maliciously feigning ignorance) are those who look at 5 yr survival without considering the effect of increased surveillance/screening. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_time_bias
Your short exchange of arguments is a good example of what goes wrong in the public discussion.
vs
(Symptomatic detected) Hey, what is this lump here? Why am I so tired? etc...
Yes, the latter is more likely to be comparable over time but it will still have issues with changes in how likely someone is to report it to their doctor, etc.