I've not researched this at all, but it seems to me that, even if you allow for transfer fee inflation, Warnock was given far more to spend at Cardiff than he had at his other clubs. One of my main criticisms of Warnock before he got QPR promoted was that he always produced the same type of teams and I was of the opinion that, even if he was given a big budget at a club, he would still put together a side that churned out the sort of stuff that he had a reputation for.
I changed my mind when I saw the Taarabt inspired QPR go up as champions, but I should have noted that he subsequently said he had broken the habits of a life time to build a side around a player like Taarabt and it was something he would not do again. City became that club which gave Neil Warnock the big transfer budget and he used it to put together a team in his own image which lacked the spirit, camaraderie and belief that his better teams had used to great advantage (e.g. our 17/18 side).
It was not as if Warnock would not sign technically good players when he was given the means to bring better quality in, more that he couldn't bring himself to trust them - he seemed happier to stick with the more expensive grafters he had signed and it's possible that these would not buy into the Warnock mindset as readily as the more "grounded" players he was used to working with did.
I'd also say that there was a possibility that some players who were at the club for the duration of Warnock's time here may have become bored with the restrictive way in which we played.
Whatever the reasons, the motivator was unable to work his magic this season, in fact, given the way we start games the side has looked demotivated if anything. The spirit which Warnock himself spoke about as a strength of his sides has been conspicuously absent, in fact, I'd say we look more like a team with problems in the dressing room and it doesn't seem to have got much better under Neil Harris.