However, I can still disagree with you on one or two points.
As you said, BYU has not had more than a passable offense since becoming independent. Is this because of independence? No, that seems more of a correlation than a causation. The best we had was the early offense of 2014, with Taysom and Jamaal running rampant through defenses. Then the wheels fell of and we were back to square one. If we had finished undefeated that season, or even with one loss, we could have finished in the top 25, maybe top 15 with a big bowl berth, having beat a ten win team in Boise State on their turf.
While we have only finished a season ranked in the top 25 (kind of), you can't point to independence as being the cause. However, if a few more seasons go along with no solid seasons being ranked, I may start shifting to the G5 crowd a little bit, especially if their arguments are as logical as yours. Well done.