Are the influence of illegal payments a little overblown? Sure. Are they a very real thing? Of course. Don't be naive. BAGS are less important than Miami winning though. Miami doesn't have an issue recruiting quality student-athletes when they are winning football games. Unfortunately, Miami has been a ~8 win team over the course of the past decade+. And we've gotten 8-win quality players as a result most years.
On top of winning, Miami needs to understand the importance and investment of a real recruiting department and infrastructure. The price of that brick has gone up. Miami needs to understand that the landscape of CFB has changed and its not all about BAGS. Its about the investment in finding, evaluating, and recruiting athletes for your program. Miami is in the most fertile bed of talent in CFB. We should NOT be seeing Miami acting like the smartest guy in the room, not offering a player that Oklahoma, Georgia, and Florida are. We aren't that good to not be offering and heavily recruiting that kid and that has nothing to do with BAGS. Its about the infrastructure, support staff, and investment in finding, evaluating, and recruiting student-athletes. That is why we can't compete. We choose not to, ignorantly.