My problem with this line of thinking is that things DID change from 2021. On offense they (mostly) changed for the better. On defense, they changed for the worse. But they didn't stay the same.
We aren't running a typical 'Pete ball' offense (though I sometimes think he tries to get us to at inopportune times) and we don't run Pete's traditional defense, either.
My thought experiment is this: If we had dumped Pete the same year we dumped Russ, and a new guy showed up, running this different offense and this different defense and had us on the verge of the playoffs both these past two seasons (making it in one of them), I'd be THRILLED with that result. Because that's not what usually happens.