UHND.com - Notre Dame Football, Basketball, & Recruiting

Your claim that UM is not an "outlier" because of "good coaching" overlooks the years of bad coaching evidence (MSU Punt Block Game, TCU, etc, etc). UM actually ended one season at 2-4 by quiting so that their program history would not take on more losses and particularly OSU would not have a chance to "hang a hundred" on them as they were threatening.
Michigan did not have different recruiting success than ND - they cheated in every way they possibly could. Recruiting violations, COVID violations, practice time violations, and even the specter of steroids hangs over the program that took relative unknowns and turned them into something more in Nebraska-like fashion.
TCU coaches even admitted after their victory over UM that they had found out about their cheating to know their signals ahead of time, and they used it in key moments to win the game).

You also ignore the dramatic changes in NIL and TP that have changed the recruiting game greatly.

Our academic requirements are even more of an anchor in this environment. We can offer the same or even more $ with NIL, but the kid still has to come to school and work hard - not a popular selling point these days. Also, ND cannot take take Transfer Portal players as undergrads (90% of them) if they a) went to a school that ND does not accept transfer credits from, b) are taking classes in a major that ND does not deem legitimate education, and c) the player is on track to graduate in 4 years. That is why we have only grad transfers and the few undergrad transfers are from good schools (which are almost always nonfootball-focused schools).

So, first of all, you wrongly aim your target at Marcus Freeman. He is not above criticism, but to your point, it is Notre Dame who is choosing to take the academic and moral high ground that inhibits us.

Your questions come down to:
Is winning so important to Notre Dame that it wants to drop it's standards drastically to compete with Alabama and Georgia? And...
Is winning so important to Notre Dame that it want to sell its' soul and cheat like Michigan?

The answer to both questions is "No". Some fans with no care for the school might disagree, but we alumni are in strong support of our school and our program. We are better than that. We MUST be better than that.