Are these weaker chefs?

Not sure if this was a casting issue or what, but in general this whole cast seems weaker in culinary talent. There’s a couple standouts, like Rasika, but they seem to be making a lot of execution errors. (Even Rasika in the supper club episode had too much salt.) And I’m not seeing the same level of creativity either. Maybe I’m glossing over some older seasons, but am I wrong? I know it’s a very different and in some ways much cheesier vibe over on Food Network, but I’ve been bingeing Tournament of Champions and really enjoying the creativity on THAT show. (If you don’t mind Guy Fieri and some over the top production, it’s a lot of fun.) This season of Top Chef so far seems pretty uninspired from a food standpoint. Even Kristen had to basically lecture them to do better. And then the very next challenge there were still a fair number of pretty basic mistakes!