It was certainly true that with their prior partners they were evenly matched results-, experience-, and ability-wise, and then add in personal sympatico plus deciding to to compete after they worked with each other, but I'm still not sure why the expectations were that high for this season, and certainly not once they debuted. He's not 100% physically, and it's rare for a Pairs man to compete at his age. James was never overly refined, but not enough to be an interesting contrast to him like Duhamel was, and he looks sloppier to me. If they weren't going to bring charisma, chemistry, and maturity -- the things that Battle of Blades is known for, since that's pretty much all they have to work with with their hockey partners, at least in the beginning -- then they'd need to bring something crisp, new, and/or dynamic to the table, even if they fell all over the place trying. Which they didn't. His taste lies firmly in line with the music he writes, so I'm not at all surprised that their programs were snooze-worthy.
For me, they met expectations, once it was clear Walsh/Michaud were not near (and couldn't be in) peak condition at the beginning of the season: they made it to the Olympics. If W/M had been well and had been able to come out fighting and building on Worlds 2021, I wouldn't have expected J/R to have been at Beijing.