It might not "need to be either or," but I'm not sure I wished we tried to have it both ways.
Could we have won without Manny? Without Dice-K? Without Lackey? Without Kimbrel or Sale?
We probably could have without Crawford, Thornburg and others, but we won by making sure we had a better than just good enough team.
I'm okay with second-guessing, and I do it myself enough, but I'm not going to be over-critical on anything that brought us 4 rings in 2 decades. In hindsight, we could take back some trades or signings, here or there, but I think we need to "go for it" from time to time.
Yes, I wish we didn't go as far as we did, but who am I to say we didn't need to. We got the rings, and it was worth it. We've had some great farms and some great teams, and sometimes both at the same time. It won't ever be as easy as it was before, but I think we can get back to the top in a few short years.