I'm quite a fan of Almeida, sad to see him leave DQT. His 2020 Giro was great considering the circumstances, and like i said in his thread, he could have made progress climbing since last time just like anyone else his age. However, he's a worker. That's why i said that intrinsically, Remco is a better climber. That doesn't mean he'll be the better climber this Giro. But as long as this year doesn't feature the same amount of top-dog DNF's as last year, Almeida will need to have improved his climbing, just to be able to match his GC of last year.
Higher placement. You would have a guy who is 2s slower in a 9k TT work for the guy who is 2s faster? Knowing the "slower" guy is still building up his form and is likely to improve over the next few weeks. It's about money, indeed. And the team has Belgian sponsors, and those companies are big in Belgium, and will get a lot more exposure in Belgium with Evenepoel, than with Almeida. Money they will get from the Giro is peanuts in comparison to what they get from their sponsors, and in this case the sponsor has much less interest in having "his" team put the local golden boy to work for the Portuguese rider who is going to leave the team anyway. In case Evenepoel implodes, and is no good anymore for GC and can't even get into a break or go for a stage, then there is no more use for him, and he can just as well start working for Almeida. But in this situation? You 'd have to be delusional to even consider the possibility.