This was my thought as well. Sherlock's method can be seen as a special case of the scientific method that focuses on gathering all the facts before making your HYPOTHESIS. (You can't call it a theory until you've tested it, and even then, the theory explains the facts, not the other way around.)

Also, completely missing from this story is how deductions are made and the difference between deductions, hypothesis, and facts.

For example, fact: The message isn't sent. Deduction: cURL works, so the problem isn't the system. Hypothesis: The problem is in the API.