The dirty secret of your underlying point is that, once you're that many years in, the role takes on the perception of being a SCOTUS appointment. It often borders on sacrilegious, letting that person go, regardless of the status of their fastball. So you look for virtues more often, because they're entrenched anyway.
And on some level, I get it? Like, you in part pay the beat writer to have the sources when it really matters - which, there are fewer circumstances for that, especially in hiring/contract jobs - and the skills to ask the hard/right questions when the fanbois recede for fear of Upsetting The Powers That Be. I accept that you may not find this 25th slot receiver recruit as fascinating as our fan base does, but when the shirt hits the fan, they'll look to you.
I'm not saying the crusty ones do a good job of being there when it counts. It's just, in theory, part of what you're paying for - a skillset on retainer, if you will. If someone's 25 years in, it's unreasonable to think they'll have a just-out-of-college zeal for every nook and cranny of the beat.
One thing that's been lost in beat writing - in part because of the fanbois - is the discernment to know when something's the real thing or just a byproduct of a universe where the 23-year-old who has no wife/kids/mortgage just sits on social media all day and turns everything into a story.
