“Unless they are being added for depth.” Depth is an important part of recruiting. You have to fill out your roster. If ND got Starlings (or a recruit like him), and he did nothing more than provide quality depth in his career — that has real value. But beyond that, “elite talent” doesn’t perfectly correlate with “elite recruits.” Lots of 4* recruits — like Starlings — turn out to be elite players (or at least quality starters)
Every great recruiting class has a number of guys exactly like Starlings. Bama and Georgia had 60 and 47 4* players on their respective rosters this year. Texas A&M’s #1 recruiting class this year contains 8 players with lower 247 ratings than Starlings, including a DL. Sure, ND needs to land guys like Keeley too. But nobody — not even Saban, Smart, and Fisher — ONLY recruits 5* (or top 150) guys. Starlings is absolutely in line with what we see on elite rosters all the time. Probably why he currently holds offers from Georgia and A&M. And, again, Starlings would fit a specific need for ND (big-bodied interior DL). Like “depth” in general, filling specific needs is an important part of recruiting.