I think people gave him the benefit of the doubt because he got on well with Georgia, and he was so nice with Debbie McGee. Laura Whitmore should never have been paired with him (the producers should take some blame for that), so I think it's easy to say that partnership was always going to be awkward and tense.
But when three have the same complaints about him then I don't think you can just give him the benefit of the doubt — you have to take it seriously.
(One thing that I don't think the BBC took into account when they changed their recruitment system for the pros, is that on the competitive ballroom circuit, most amateurs don't really teach a huge amount — that's part of the rules being an amateur dancer, you can only teach under supervision of a professional.
Before series 8, I think all the pros were ballroom professionals. Most of the pro recruits after series 8 went from being good amateurs into performances dancers (stage shows etc) to Strictly. Strictly is quite possibly the first time they've taught a single adult one-to-one. Most ballroom teaching is group classes or couples.
In general, they do it very well. But it isn't like they've done the professional teaching exams and/or have lots of teaching experience.)