Exactly. This was a case of voters actually choosing a preferred candidate rather than choosing a preferred party. If a supermajority of the third-place candidate (who was a Republican) had selected Palin as their second choice then Palin would have won. They didn’t.
It’s beyond parody that Republicans across the country are saying the will of the people has somehow been subverted through this voting system given how gung-ho they are for gerrymandering and the Electoral College.
It would be kind of like Theodore Roosevelt saying that he should have been named the real winner of the 1912 Presidential election because he would have defeated Woodrow Wilson if they’d only let him have all of Taft’s votes.
The thing is, maybe in a ranked choice voting system Teddy would have won that election. It is entirely possible that most Taft voters would have put Teddy as their second choice. But Palin’s complaint is even more ridiculous because she had an opportunity that Teddy didn’t: Begich voters were free to put her as their second choice but not enough of them did.