Laidlow's Kona race was an outlier compared to all his previous races. Not only, showing courage, did he ace the bike, big time (never done that before), but then he didn't blow up on the run, as he does more often than not, even in 2022. So his Kona was a one-off until he's achieved a few relatively good repeats - as you say "future will tell".
https://stats.protriathletes.org/athlete/sam-laidlow
Now that IM have decided to remove the need to validate for those AQ (for Nice or Kona) I wouldn't be surprised to see Laidlow and Sodaro not do an IM this year, till Nice/Kona. They'll be (perfectly reasonably) all-in for the PTO Tour races: an IM will demand too much recovery time.
On your second point (above) do you think a top swim-biker makes races more interesting to watch than a poor swimmer (eg Sanders or Long or Skipper or Jewett or Astle) who then works their way up through the field, to challenge (aka make it interesting) on the run? Of course because of the visual fetish of the cameras (as directed by the video production team) focusing on the front of the race, we don't see these athletes till the second half of the run, more's the pity.