Theoretical Recipe

Theories are not facts, they are made up of them. Therefore, theories never "graduate" to a fact; they always remain theories, which get reworked in the face of new/corrected relevant facts. A theory can be thrown out, of course, if enough of the facts on which it is built are determined to be invalid. But the theory's demise doesn't do anything to the facts themselves.

Metaphorically, saying something is "just a theory" is like saying a cake is "just a recipe." The recipe (theory) can get updated with new ingredients (facts), but result is still a cake.