Seems like anytime there is ANY skepticism or concern about the starting QB that people always overestimate the backups ability and just assume that Kirk and the staff are idiots - as if they've never seen the backups play against competition before.
While there are rare cases where a QB plays better in real games than practice, it doesn't happen that often. As we saw with Padilla he wasn't any better than Petras (not much worse, but not any better). And Lainez might look ok coming off the bench late in the game with his feet, if you actually start him for a series of games in the season teams would easily scout him and turn him into just as much of a trainwreck as the starter was last year.
The other assumption people make about our staff is that they are too "loyal" or stick with veterans too much. While there is some truth to this probably, I think people underestimate the importance of maintaining chemistry and player satisfaction especially in the world of transfers.
In the case of the current QB role, I think it would have been fair to tell Cade that he would remain the starter as long as healthy, and that they would bring in a strong backup in the event of injury. They would also tell this to the NW transfer as they are usually very open and honest with players in this regard.
Now maybe fans would get mad at this, but fans don't have to manage 100+ young adult males in the day of NIL, free transfers and social media. I think it's appropriate to commit to Cade even if Sullivan is 5% better in practice .... because we committed to it. Without that commitment up front to BOTH players, taking a transfer in to compete with Cade who, at best, might be 5% better due to mobility, is a recipe for problems. We also don't know what was said to Cade prior to considering Sullivan, so a staff has to keep their word to players and this staff is one of the highest character staffs in that regard imo.
So, yes, maybe they do commit to Cade and then fans get mad if Sullivan looks good in an open practice but isn't getting many reps with the ones. Deal with it - most of us are thinking of this in one dimensional ways but program management and roster management bring a lot more complexity to the table then just thinking about a depth chart.
I trust our staff - they do make roster mistakes, but much of what we perceive to be "mistakes" might be situations where we would change our mind if we knew 100% of the information.