All of what you said is entirely correct, but there was a huge elephant in the room that could be ignored at the time, due to all of the success that we were having:
Brandon Wimbush wasn't a reliable passer, plain and simple.
With the exception of the Michigan State game, there really wasn't a game where he showed that he could complete easy passes with good consistency. It only got worse as the season went on, and Miami's defense, which was a very good one and fired up, exposed our offense for the one-dimensional trick pony that it was.
This year's offense is significantly more complete. We have a passing and a running game, both of which aren't exactly chopped liver. Defending against this offense isn't as easy as it was last year, or in 2013, where opposing defenses would either stack the box with 8 or 9 defenders, daring us to pass (last year), or simply drop 8 into a short zone, and take away the short passing game (2013).
The only part of this year's offense that I would say is unproven, is the long passing game. Ian Book's arm strength is decent enough, but I haven't seen the long bomb being a credible threat yet. While it does take away some of the vertical aspect of the game, at least he has proven that he can hit those medium range passes with accuracy, which can still spread the field vertically enough.
Now, I do worry about the offensive line and the running backs, now that we've lost Alex Bars for the year, Jafar Armstrong is out for this week, and Tony Jones is a bit banged up, but if the replacements continue to step up, maybe it's a good sign that we have real, developed depth that's ready to be plugged in on the fly.