I wasn't enamored with Diaz but the fact is he was effectively fired halfway through his third season. He should have either been given more time or Cristobal should be on the hot seat next season. Not hating on Cristobal but fair is fair. Diaz had a tiny chance of getting the BOT to reconsider if he ran the table and finished on a 7 game win streak. Unfortunately for Diaz we dropped one more so his fate was sealed. And that was coming off an 8-3 shortened season, which almost certainly would have been a 10 win season if we'd stuck to the original pre-Covid schedule (three more cupcakes, no Clemson).
As for recruiting, right now we're praying Cristobal goes portal hunting, which is something that Diaz was demonstrably better at (landing one of the most coveted dual threat QBs in the country was pretty impressive). Diaz fixed his year 1 OC hire and showed he didn't have an objection to high octane offenses. I think he would have picked another spread OC after Lashlee's departure. Diaz was terrible with defense, but I suspect he would have relinquished control of the defense if it meant his job was on the line. This is not a hagiography of Diaz - I just don't see where hiring Cristobal is a clearly superior choice to giving Diaz the 5 million per year that ended up going to Cristobals salary, and telling Diaz to use it to hire the best coordinators and recruiting staff in the country.