Well, scientifically it's not literally true that we're beyond 1.5. Actually, what "beyond 1.5" is to mean exactly is not even as obvious as it sounds. If it's for a 30-year average, for ex., we'd be able to state it only long after the fact - not very useful. If it includes projections of likelihood, it includes contributions from modeling, not just observations. And what's the baseline?
But it's very true that we're very close. Which is all we need to know.