Maybe it depends on you definition of "successful team?" My layman's take is, a team heavily featuring guys like Dainja and Goode, supplemented with a couple of talented additions from the portal and younger guys like DGL, Amani and Morez, has both a higher floor but also a lower ceiling than a team that leans more heavily on imported portal talent (but minus Dainja and Goode). If you get enough portal talent, sure you run the risk that the culture and team cohesion is an issue, but if you can make it work, such a team has a much higher ceiling, imo.
I think you can potentially compete for a B1G title with Dainja and Goode as team pillars (but you'd still need probably at least Storr and someone else added), but I'm personally not convinced you could compete for a national title with such a team, and I don't think a deep run would be super likely either. Dain specifically struggles too much against other top tier bigs on both ends. And I think the deep runs/natty contention are the goals that Brad and the staff are aiming for. So again, what counts as a "successful team?" and are you willing to risk having a season like 22-23 in order to swing for the fences?
I also think people aren't giving enough weight to Brad and the other coaches for maintaining the culture even when players leave. Of course having it come from the players helps A LOT, I'm not saying it doesn't, but I think the coaches have the capability to pick up that slack if need be.
