"If you can't measure it, you can't manage it" is a quote by W. E. Deming. But Deming was fully aware that there are things you can't measure and must manage. He also emphasized that data could be used to mislead and that you must... well, use your brain. Deming thought of data as merely something to be collected in order to decide on an action, but before you can decide, you predict. I think this "predictive" potential is a good mental model; just as predicting the future is foolish, you can also reliably predict that the Earth will go around the Sun tomorrow.

Deming was (among many things) a professor of statistics, and knew that statistics can lie. Much of his work emphasizes the need for analytical skills and critical thinking. An example is PDSA (not PDCA), which requires study and evaluation of an action and theory in order to learn from it. https://deming.org/explore/pdsa/