Brooks wasn't much of a factor, some might even said a liability before he was injured? Together, Brooks and Barton was the youth and replacement for an aging Bobby. I guess we have to agree to disagree
Feel free to disregard if you'd like but I think this is an important distinction. I completely see why you could view 2022 as a targeted youth movement because we did get much younger. "Correlation does not imply causation" though and getting younger was merely a side effect of trying to eke more value out of the roster with a huge dead cap hit from Russ sitting on the books.
Pete's clear intent in 2022 was to win as many games as humanely possible after getting rid of Russ. Bobby's cap hit was far larger than his play warranted and so we went for better value at the position. If Pete could have retained Bobby for even twice the price of Barton he would have jumped at that chance. The youth we did play were both very cheap and players that Pete felt were ready to contribute immediately. The goal wasn't to play youth, however, but to win games.
Bringing Bobby back this year does not represent a change in strategy from trying a youth movement, failing at it, and going back to a veteran. Rather, it is a continuation of that same "win as many games this year as we possibly can" strategy - which I am not always on board with because it does sacrifice the future. That distinction matters because when we are predicting what the FO is going to do going forwards, you should bet heavily on the "what wins games in 2023" strategy over the "get younger" strategy wherever they differ.