Those flaws are very real. He's a very conserative player which means his first instinct when posssession is lost is to back off, and his first instinct when he picks up the ball is to play the easiest pass available. It's possible he'll grow into a different kind of player but right now that's a substantial deficiency that his partner needs to compensate for. Soucek covering more yards than anyone in the league is partly because he's a strong athlete and partly because Rice often plays with cowardice. His occasional ranging runs, when the easy ball isn't available, just help gloss over that.
The thing that I like about Rice is how his positioning allows the rest of the team to go out and do their thing.
The fullbacks, Soucek, the attacking mids and the forwards can really get going even against teams like Chelsea or Liverpool.
This is why I want him because we have players that can go and be our Soucek that gets forward - we have Fred, Pogba, McTominay and VDB that arguably only has Matic that sits and protect the CB'S whilst everyone else can go an attack or press further up the pitch. Someone like Tchouameni who has been regarded as an alternative is not that type of CDM, his best is when chasing after the ball which means players like VDB, McTominay, Fred or Pogba will have to be positionally deeper or protective when Tchouameni steps up.
At the age of 22, I like what I see from Rice even though his weaknesses can be seen too. He isn't passing around like Carrick or Pirlo, but neither did they play this hybrid CB/CDM/CM type defensive role at the age of 22 either.
He isn't worth 100 mil, but some fans don't really care about prices of players and just want to fix the empty gaps of the squad.