breaking up a cycle by fishing around with his stick does not solve any problems nor break's any cycle up but man it sure creates problems for his team-mates
I saw stats on this a year ago or so, where Gardiner had great numbers for contested pucks in a cycle, and his success rate was just fine as well.
"Fishing around with his stick" to me looks a lot like keeping his stick in position to cover passing lanes. Something I know better minds than me has illustrated by comparing how when he goes after a player with puck control, his stick is still on the ice and covering a lane. Compared to guys like Polak that goes after guys with their stick up, which gives them an easy way to keep the puck moving even if they take a hit to do so.
nobody gets beaten to the outside more then Gardiner
Oh come on, this is the kind of thing people say when they really don't watch more than one team. But yeah, Gardiner gets beat on the outside a lot. A large part of that is because he keeps a tight gap, which is why he prevents so many controlled entries. Something that has a tremendous effect on defense.
There was a nice article a while ago that highlighted how rare his ability to give support to his partner at attempted zone entries is. When teams attack our RD with speed, forcing him to take depth, Gardiner often swings over to take away space and time and force a dump in. Very few defenders do that so successfully, and the results have apparently been great.
Don't really disagree with your other problems with him but:
Just my opinion but he doesn't bring enough offense to make up for the lack of defense
I mean, how many years of Gardiner in a top four role do we need where all results with him on the ice are positive,
especially from a defensive standpoint, before we start to accept that his qualities does in fact make up for his weaknesses?