I think your whole argument falls down with point 3.....at no point in the last 5 or 6 years of shyte has anyone expected Everton to be top 4.

We all know what we are at and some of us recognise that top 4 might be a place nobe of can ever expect Everton to be in again.

What we do have a right to expect though is:

Signs of progress from where we are
A decent cup run
To be reasonably entertained by what we see in the pitch.

Every single one of the managers that we ran out of patience with in these years we did so because they failed to deliver on ANY of these points.