With such a narrow points gap, it's bound to create a healthy rivalry between the two. Madrid are also trying to get up and Barcelona are trying not to let their guard down in their current position. It could be that Madrid cannot catch Barcelona because the remaining 1 match is still uncertain 3 points.
I partially differ from what you say. For starters, there is already a third party in play for the league, Atletico Madrid, who are only 2 points behind Barca, and as you say, we will have to see how the pending Madrid-Valencia match goes, because if Madrid win it, they would now be leaders, but I think there is still a month to go before it is played.
It seems to me that last year it was the same, wasn't it? Barcelona did well at the beginning and lost the league at the end. If it wasn't last year, it was the year before.
That's right, it could be that in the future Atletico Madrid will get the advantage to take over the top of the standings, when we focus too much on Barcelona and Real Madrid. But what is certain is that the top three teams seem to continue to compete until the end of the season. It is still difficult to guess who will finish in first place, injury problems, a tight match schedule, will always be the main challenge. Real Madrid benefits because they have one postponed match, on paper the match will help them overtake Barcelona. Of course, all of that is just an initial prediction, and everything can change very quickly, at a glance the three teams have the same big chance for now.