We arseholed plenty of merkins after 2018. Hayne, Norman, French, Vave and Williams all left the club, and Mannah was banished to reserve grade. We didn't need to change the coach for all that.
On the other hand, I'd say none of those merkins 'bought in' (except perhaps Mannah) and were easy to axe. Gutherson, RCG and Sivo were probably loyal to the coach and therefore he was probably loyal to them. So getting them to agree to break contract might've been harder if he was still coach. But as for how well we've recruited, don't forget Lomax was signed while Arthur was still coach. Otherwise, we've swapped Gutherson, RCG, Sivo and Talagi for Iongi, Williams, JAC and Papalii. Have we really improved the squad? We've gained some speed but lost a lot of experience.