Pat was likely the most qualified CEO Intel could get at this point.
Clearly, he needed a stronger CFO and ELT, to prevent the excesses in Headcount, Spending and excess capacity that occurred, because he failed to course correct when his intention to keep IDM 2.0 integrated was proven by the market to be way suboptimal.
The market wants to see Foundry as an independent company, and the longer Intel takes to make that happen will only serve to crush the stock (because of the intense capital requirements associated with Foundry). Arguably Foundry should be the kind of public-private partnership mentioned in some recent articles.
The government need to step up and provide the leadership and printed money needed to enable Foundry to compete with TSMC and frankly SMIC. Some opinion about this is being floated around, suggesting an entity in which various customers pony up an ownership stake in Foundry, of which Intel is ultimately a small owner.
I don't think any line worker needs to worry about Foundry. It is just a matter of how it is capitalized. The incompetent managers..should dust off their resumes. That easy ride is just about done.