I'd imagine JRs everyday energy levels and cognitive abilities are similar to most people in their middle and late 80s. Even if he's in the 90th percentile range for his age group, and I've worked with some of these people in my line of work, they at best are capable of 3-4 hours of sustained output a day and need constant supervision as they will make cognitive mistakes or forget key things. It's just reality of being that age.
He was always cheap, but he wasn't always this bad at running a franchise. He was never great to be fair, maybe never even average, but he wasn't historically bad.