I remember my sifu's teacher use to have his students challenge other martial schools...it didnt matter if you were chinese, korean, american, or japaneses...if you did wing chun in his kwoon you had to fight...if you won the match against visitors or other schools you would be giving a break from hard conditioning training...if you loss you had do conditioning until your arms locked up.
Basically people who never touched hands with them will say there wing chun is crap...but at the end of the day those they fought would agree they had real gung fu!!!
An thats what matters...NOT lineage or some strange history...But who wins the fights...
An thats how todays present legends became pedigree lineages...by winning fights...not by how traditional their wing chun was!