So you have the issue that RB are designing the best car they can, instead of a reasonably driveable one.

For me I think of that slightly different. RB isn't making the best car. RB are designing a car that performs exceptionally well under a very narrow window of parameters, and Max is very very good in staying in that very narrow window. So if a driver's skill in racing is anywhere but staying in that very narrow window, they'll perform poorly in an RB as the long list of 2nd seat drivers has shown. I think that window got even smaller when RB got more powerful engines from Honda in 2018.

Riccardo was performing pretty well in a RB car with an Renault engine. Riccardo's style seemed optimized for what the Renault engine could do. He was pretty poor with a Mclaren car with a Mercedes engine. He was also poor with a Honda engine in a RacingBulls/vCarb F1 car. Riccardo's style just doesn't seem to be compatible with anything other than an Renault behavior. I'm actually surprised Alpine has never reached out to him as he was possibly the highest performer in F1 on that engine.