100%
If you take out the Mitch years where he's been asleep at the wheel or has made horrific hires, the historical average is a 3 seed and much closer to an Elite 8 than a sweet 16. Mitch singlehandedly lowered the "standard".
There are a few people on here like this, which is fine if they want to give Pope a long rope - that's their choice. But the problem is that they chastise everyone else's behavior. Hypocritical.
I don't know how much it is affecting things, but it definitely isn't helping. But if it's detrimental to recruiting, it's Pope's job to bring attention to that. Since he hasn't (at least publicly), I'm guessing it's mainly a Pope problem.