At the end of the day, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle. By the time the team hit the field under Arth in 2019, due to what little was left and the new system weeding out what was left from Bowden's tenure, very few or no experienced players remained on the team.
As for recruiting, I think Arth was certainly hamstrung in year one by his late hire. As I recall, BG hired Leffler a full 3 weeks before Arth.
The stretch they're on certainly won't help in recruiting but they wouldn't be the first team to build a team from the ground up.
I still think it's tough to judge the staff given what they're working with. When you see them play, the competition clearly appears bigger, faster, stronger and more athletic and other than recruiting (admittedly another part of their job) the coaches can only do so much with the talent they have. To the coaches' credit, they are better than last year and I'm not seeing bad technique or a lack of effort.