It's actually more cool to say "injuries are just an excuse" and "every team has injuries." ;) I buy a lot of what you're saying about lack of depth, but no team was overcoming the number of injuries we sustained. They may not have gone on a 7-game losing streak but their season would have been derailed. See S.F. Niners. Prior to the season the defending NFC champ Niners were the NFC gold standard along with the Lions. They were widely predicted to repeat their success - injuries derailed their season with no playoffs.
On the flip side, you're correct in that good teams and teams with depth are better equipped to overcome them. The Lions are a good example you mentioned. They were so good they were able to overcome their Dline being ravaged with injuries, until they couldn't - in the playoff loss to the Commanders, their offense kept pace as their defense was getting killed, but their stellar offense kept them alive. But their margin of error was very thin against top tier teams in the playoffs due to the injuries. Yes, they had a lot of turnovers in that game but due to pressing to try to keep up with the points their defense was surrendering.
Injuries was the main factor especially to key positions and the number of them. You're correct in that our rash of injuries exposed a thin team regarding depth. And either we just have terrible luck regarding injuries or we're doing something terribly wrong in preparation. I hope it's the latter and it gets corrected. 🙏
So, an inordinate amount of injuries, lack of depth and an inept, floundering head coach could not be overcome. One positive result that I know you're pleased with was the change in coaching. Even with all of the injuries, Rizzi KK got better play out of the patchwork team, so that's an indication that it was more than injuries.
That's why it baffles me how so many here can make definitive evaluations about the players on our team based on last year's play. We simply cannot not truly evaluate players from last year because of the extreme number of injuries. The most we can gleen is how well some of them reacted to such adverse conditions and showed some fight and determination.