I think you're mixing up the science itself and the reporting on it. If a paper was published saying that sea level rises were going to be 20% lower than expec

I think you're mixing up the science itself and the reporting on it. If a paper was published saying that sea level rises were going to be 20% lower than expected I wouldn't expect most people would ever hear about it. Or if they did it would be reported as showing that sea level rise was even more of a threat than we had believed. If you want the truth the IPCC reports area great for providing the scientific consensus along with the (large) uncertainty we have about exactly what climate change will look like.