I know where you are coming from but your definition of developing is a bit to black and white or simplistic for me. It just comes across as being too apologetic for many failings. Development has to be a many faceted process and measured against many yardsticks. I wouldn't suggest games won is the only measurement, in fact it can sometimes be very misleading, but neither is just getting game counts up the only measurement.
Until our recent run of injuries I felt we had slipped backwards and the signs were not good (even though we had 3.5 wins). Now with the terrible run of injuries things are harder to judge. We now have no realistic chance of finals (IMO) so I am happy to accelerate the blooding of as much of the new talent as possible (howe, evans, nicholson, gawn, blease, strauss, cook) at the expense of the older marginal players (bate, newton, macdonald etc). Because of these changed circumstances the rest of this year becomes more of a development year than it would have been at the start of the year (if that makes sense).