You didn't say anything here I wasn't already aware of.
Total class matters because total talent on a roster matters. You guys keep talking about increasing the talent for the 10th, 11th, 12th, and 13th scholarships, well, that is hard to do with a two man class. A two man class that is that size largely because OU and PM missed on a number of targets. They wanted a larger class. They couldn't land a larger class. Again, that matters. So instead of signing quality HS player (like our league competitors are doing on paper), we'll go back to the Portal which has been hit or miss for PM.
I'm perfectly fine waiting on the transfer season to end and factoring those guys into recruiting classes. But I suspect OU will still be lagging behind a number of conference mates.
And back to your point about big class vs average, some of those that are above us because of numbers, their average for their top two players isn't much off from ours. So yeah, slightly behind us, then they have two more players than we do that have a chance to be good or contributors. Again, that matters.