Doesn’t really matter where a guy is at after spring. It’s after summer we need to worry about. If he had a tough spring he could grind over the summer to save it. Hopefully he doesn’t need to though.
In Dans situation it was stupid and he should have been starting. I’m not going to speak on other situations. In general though, coaches lean on guys they can rely on because their floor is much higher than a mercurial guy who is unreliable.
It’s rare but does happen some times. Dan Hendrickson was a victim of that before he started. But again, it’s rare, and as we all know, talent is a very small part of the equation.