Maile has already been addressed, but his defenses at USU were solid and his Boise State defense was fantastic in 2021.
By any objective metric, those three have had better defenses than Tuiaki.
Your whole premise seems to be that this is Tom’s call and that the people who support Tuiaki know best—and I disagree with both points. I think that Tuiaki is Sitake’s call, not Tom’s, and I think that, in very short order, the people on who are voicing frustration and concern about Tuiaki will be proven right. This is not a defense that will allow BYU to compete in the Big XII, and there is no sign of improvement. It’s year 6 and we’re still getting excuses about injuries, lack of depth at key positions, etc.