Not to belabor the point but I think you're looking for the exceptional where adequate can still result in a football program on a different trajectory than we were on with Herman. If our measure is current Bama, then yes, a "buck stops here" level of leadership from the AD would be advantageous but we're a mile away from that and I think CDC is satisfactory for what we need now if a) leadership above him carries the water on big decisions and b) Sark can install a program that's more consistently not in need of AD leadership.
I think what most fans don't get is the AD/Head Coach dichotomy of personalities and how they mixed in the past. When I talk to UT athletic alums they tend to be fond in their praise for Deloss as a "nice guy who cared about us" and on the football side, "Mack was a lot meaner than the media portrayed". In other words, the public presentation of both was wrong and yet they won a championship together and absent a freak injury would have won two.
Regardless, I think we can both agree and be thankful that regardless of your opinion of CDC and/or his deficiency of leadership, we're in a far better position going forward than if Patterson was still the AD.