I'm not sure why people are bringing up intangibles like leadership and culture wrt Tamou. I agree that those things are vitally important but we can't know how Tamou contributes to that.
He seems like a nice/chill guy to me but he could just as easily influence the team to be more laid back than they should be, or he could provide a calming influence on a hot headed young pack. It could be a bit of both at different points. He could give the young forwards valuable advice on the week to week rigours of NRL combat, or he could breed resentment as they watch him soften his stride every damn time he hits the line. Or all of the above and everything posted about his character and influence on the team (good and bad) could be bullshit because we're nowhere near the squad and only see these people through curated press releases and what the players present as their public personas. None of us are close enough to the squad (as far as I'm aware) to have any idea in reality.
We can only talk about his on field performance, which has been variable. Has a good game now and then, but more often then not doesn't really stand out. He's the weakest forward in our fully fit pack for mine (possibly doesn't even make it), with the caveat that we have a very good pack so that still leaves him as NRL standard as a player. Whether he's worth the money is similar to the leadership argument. We have no idea what he's being paid, but given our squad is in a really good place I'm willing to give Gould the benefit of the doubt for now.
