JPGs can turn out fine, but RAW gives more flexibility in adjusting exposure, reducing noise, and changing white balance. Those are simple facts.
Everyone has different standards and different uses for photos. White balance is a good example. Modern cameras do a pretty good job with AWB, but some scenes aren't handled well. Some people don't care all that much about WB, because the human brain does a good job of seeing something that should be white as being white.
Yes, sports shooters shoot JPG, but that's due to the urgency of getting the images posted. Many sports photos are not technically great – there is high noise, highlights are blown, green grass isn't very green, player's feet are cut off, etc. Those 'problems' are secondary to the content, so they are tolerated. A portrait or landscape image that is noisy, with blown highlights, off colors and bad cropping would not be tolerated.