I do like Warnock as a bloke but agree with a lot of what has been said previously.

His squads seemingly do know primarily to play one way and would need an overhaul.
He has little to no faith in youth here which is frustrating. Maybe it is an indication of what we are producing (or not) too.

Warnock seems great when creating the siege mentality at a club and playing the 'world against us' card at the off with average players and getting that much more from them and fostering a team spirit.

As has been touched on once he has that initial success and is given some money then it all seems to flatten out, the spirit is affected and the results drop off with him ultimately walking or being shown the door.

I believe we are hitting the latter part of that with City now. We had a great chance of going up if we recruited well but I'm not sure we have.
Flint for Manga for me has weakened us defensively and the safety net of Manga's pace has been taken away. The similarities of Morrison and Flint have also been discussed in depth. The midfield has been weakened too. A slightly weakened midfield would have held its own but to lose so many quality players and replace them with Vaulks and leave him on the bench (at least at Wigan. If he was fit why not start him?)is criminal.
Up front I believe we are slightly stronger in that I feel Glatzel will offer more than Zohore but we have a lot of strikers just kicking their heels who don't really compliment the first team too much.

In short I think that working with existing squads and tinkering early on with freebies has worked for him both here and elsewhere but once he has seen the initial backs to the wall period subside he struggles and has done at clubs before this.
I am much the same as the original poster as I didn't expect us to be world beaters under Warnock, more the hard working team who played long ball and were tight at the back. In many ways we still are Wigan last Saturday aside.
I just think he has taken us as far as he can here and if anything stands out for me about Warnock's time here is that he failed time and again to sort out gaping holes in the squad and failed to make signings in the areas where they were really needed. It is happening currently with the midfield. We seem all too happy to make signings elsewhere while wedging square pegs into round holes.

If the club are not planning for time after Warnock, given what he has said about it being his final season, then they bloody well should be.
My big worry with a new guy coming in is his relationship with Emperor Tan and his henchmen. One thing Neil seems to do very well is manage Vincent and his expectations/outbursts/needs very well.