Oates' best attribute was never scoring tries, it was the metres he gained on exit sets. He would routinely make 15 metres and put us on the front foot, or even better draw a penalty as teams tried to illegally halt his momentum. Being able to score insane tries was just a bonus.
IMO it's those hard metres that we desperately need right now, as our field position and momentum is non-existent. However if he is dropping balls, he is undoing all the work from his runs. I don't think he's been as error-prone as he's been made out to be, nor is he any worse than Coates in terms of coming off his wing in defence (remember, in the Game That Shall Not Be Named he was compensating for a Jack Reed with a completely ****ed shoulder), but he is nowhere near as good as he was 5 years ago.