Attention, highly non-political post.
Here is a puzzler. This ST datasheet says on page 5 that the junction to ambient temp rise is 55C/W for SO8 and 115C/W for SOT89:
This TI datasheet for the positive regulator states pretty much the opposite on page 4:
One is a negative and one a positive regulator which shouldn't make much of a difference as I assume they calculated with similar copper. So it seems one of them may be wrong. Question is, which one?