I think this was exactly the case and I think it was clear at the time Barba would have benefitted from staying.
He did drop off I reckon it was a combination of his Nan passing, injury and having his head turned by NRL and family. I do blame JH for 2018 also there was a game at Catalan when Lomax produced a full back masterclass and we won with Fages/Richardson at HB, we should have carried on with that and benched Barba and made him prove himself again after dealing with any issues also JH made a mistake by not rotating the squad during 2018 which he did rectify in 2019.