my choice wrote:
How well has this worked for Fasil or Paige?
Why are these your comparison points? Fasil Bizuneh has never run a good marathon. He's great from 10K through the half, but the marathon just does not appear to be his distance, no matter who's coaching him.
Gotcher, on the other hand, has a marathon PB far better than any time he's put up over shorter distances. So does his training partner Nick Arciniaga. Arciniaga had a bad race at Chicago, like the whole McMillan crew, but ran a 2:11 PB at Houston.
If you look at the timeline, Gotcher will have had 31% less time to get ready for Boston than Arciniaga had before Houston (11 weeks versus 16) - but 37.5% more time than Bizuneh had to get ready for Fukuoka (11 weeks versus 8).
I think you're choosing to compare Bizuneh rather than Arciniaga for your comparison because you have an axe to grind with the McMillan group or program.
(I don't know enough about Higgins to comment on her.)