A bunch of key domestiques started leaving in 2016 and continued in 2017. The reality is they weren't fine and the riders leaving were a sign of issues (and much of it with Quintana not getting along with many of the Spaniards on the team). Quintana lost the support of team management during that same time frame. The problem is that since 2017 they've been over reliant on Valverde and until this year had done nothing to try to rebuild to fix that over dependancy, which not only did they know they had, they admitted they've been too reliant on him for a lot longer than just that. I actually don't think bringing Landa in was a huge mistake. I think it was no bigger of a mistake than their giving Quintana the contract extension instead of letting him just finish the contract he had and letting him go then.
The team wanted to keep Carapaz, but this is where the big issues with Acquadro come in, he had Carapaz sign with Ineos BEFORE the Giro while telling Movistar they could still negotiate to keep him. Once that was discovered is when Movistar went public and black listed Acquadro. Then we have the Amador situation. It also shows one major, major problem if one agent controls so many riders, that's not good for anyone. With Movistar blacklisting him it will make it harder for him to sign Spaniards as they want to race for Movistar.