Working as an eng leader for five years in the industry gave me a considerable base of factual knowledge about the state of the industry even beyond my own comp

Working as an eng leader for five years in the industry gave me a considerable base of factual knowledge about the state of the industry even beyond my own company. I was just summing up my knowledge with an (I thought innocuous) 'I believe' statement. Sounds like you believe otherwise. That's cool with me, and I don't doubt you have good reasons way :)