Was Peter Engel a genuinely good showrunner/executive producer or a hack?

One of the biggest criticisms that I read about Engel is that his works were derivative of each other, especially by the time that Saved by the Bell: The New Class was gaining traction.

https://shmaltzandmenudo.wordpress.com/2016/04/12/tidlatv-episode-28-recycled-plots/

https://web.archive.org/web/20190224073154/http://www.savedbythebellreviewed.com/category/all-the-new-class-episodes/the-new-class-recaps/

https://web.archive.org/web/20080826075657/http://homepage.mac.com/ijball/SbtB/Home.html

He would basically take the Saved by the Bell template and apply them to a different scenario/setting. So what we would get is:
*The College Years: Saved by the Bell at college
*California Dreams: Saved by the Bell with a band
*Hang Time: Saved by the Bell with a basketball team
*City Guys: Saved by the Bell in the hood
*USA High: Saved by the Bell in Paris

https://web.archive.org/web/20190520064414/http://www.californiadreamsreviewed.com/category/all-episodes/recaps/

And even outside of that formula, Engel, the California Dreams Reviewed blog argued, never seemed to have been able to figure out what made a show work. In the case of California Dreams, instead of putting more focus on the band in a show about a band, the show come the second season, showed less focus on the musical aspects of the show.

Also in the case of California Dreams, Engel didn’t appear to understand what went right with season one of that show, so he just started tinkering with everything while missing opportunities for greatness. Instead of making squeaky clean Matt a foil for bad boy Jake, the show pushes the supposed main character in Matt far into the background. Instead, much of Jake's interactions were with Tiffani and Sly.