I do remember 18 months ago loads on here saying they would be happy seeing Gini leave if it meant Thiago coming in as his replacement. As it was that happened with the added bonus of an extra 12 months of Gini.
Hindsight would say that Thiago's injury record has meant the "replacement" hasn't been as effective as folks were assuming, but that is only based on hindsight - at the time people were in favour of the approach.
So to say Gini wasn't replaced isn't strictly true, to say he wasn't adequately replaced may be valid