Ball retention and forward passing, in reality. And maybe he got praised cuz he had some pretty good games, despite not scoring or directly assisting.
We don't need to write him out of existence because of his current lack of playtime - he came in and did quite well, well enough that no one batted an eyelid when we signed him permanently and no one complained for a year and a bit, coincidentally when he broke his leg. Is he past it now though? Yeah, for sure.
We currently have another player who's great with the ball in his feet and constantly looks for the ball and a forward pass - James Garner. 2G 2A in 35 games as we're only looking at black-and-white stats, so he must be absolutely atrocious and offers nothing, using the same logic.