i don't want to get into a debate here, as I agree with some of what you say. Thing is, as a small club with limited financial resources in a seaside town, we just don't have the budget or the pull for anything other than lower league professional players or players in their swansong years (or in the final of the final last chance saloons...). What I am saying is that when we got promotion into the championship, we had one huge player in Shaun Goater, who by your yardstick was also old and over the hill. We also had Steve Tilson, who is a fantastic coach. Goater single handedly transformed our league 2 side into a force to be reckoned with, as he assisted with the strikers training and was a mentor to a certain Freddy Eastwood.... Remember him??
This time round, we have several experienced and very high quality ex prem / championship standard players in their thirties, which given there is no way we could have afforded any of them while they were at the peak of their careers, we can now and we could and should be benefiting from all that experience. We are not progressing through, and there can't be too many reasons why not. The youngsters look good as prospects, and most of our old, slow, over the hill has been's have still got some life in them! I think that with a better man manager, this crop of mediocrity could very easily be pushing for automatic promotion in this league judging by the competition we have seen at the hall this year. So, it isn't ability, this is a mindset issue. And that sits firmly at the managers door!
I suspect though, that the boss knows best, so their experience is disregarded, as I suspect that they aren't allowed an opinion. And if they offer one anyway, their reward looks like a seat in the directors box!