Histograms of plasma bulk parameters determined by applying the three different fit methods to the same measurement samples. (Left) Density |$n_{\mathrm{out}}$| (middle) temperature |$k_{\mathrm{B}} T_{\mathrm{out}}$|⁠, and (right) kappa index |$\kappa _{\mathrm{out}}$|⁠, determined by using Method A: chi-squared minimization with data-driven uncertainty (grey), Method B: chi-squared minimization with model-driven uncertainty (red), and Method C: maximum-likelihood method (blue). The simulations consider |$n_{\mathrm{in}}$| = 10 cm⁻³, |$k_{\mathrm{B}} T_{\mathrm{in}}$| = 12 eV, |$\kappa _{\mathrm{in}}$| = 3, and an instrument |$G_{\mathrm{F}}\sim 8.1\times 10^{-9}$|  |$\mathrm{m}^2\, \mathrm{sr}\, \mathrm{eV}\, \mathrm{eV}^{-1}$|⁠.