Okay you've both asked lots of things so here's what I think overall.
I think this season he's not been at his shot stopping best but as recently as last season he was and was, along with Allison, the best shot stopper in the league.
I think he's been improving at his sweeping and distribution to the point where he has played a big part in our fantastic form. I really don't mind him not coming for crosses because I keep seeing goalkeepers costing there teams goals by doing just that.
I think there has been 1 outstanding keeper in the league the past 2 seasons and he plays for our arch rivals so isn't coming to us. I think the difference between De Gea and the rest is negligible.
I also think De Gea has the ability to further improve his sweeping and distribution, Betis notwithstanding, and regain his 2022 shot stopping form.
The team has massively blipped and he has too this season but his general play over the vast majority of games has been fantastic, winning us points many times.
Furthermore, I have no problem with criticism of him, but I think some of the gleeful ridiculing, by some on here over the past week, of any United player, let alone a United legend has been despicable. You'd barely get it on RAWK.
I agree that De Gea had a good shot-stopping season last season and is having an average/poor one this season. Where we disagree, is that the three prior seasons, he wasn't much better than he has been this season. As such, last season looks to be the anomaly and what we're seeing now is his current level as a shot-stopper.
He has improved this season as a sweeper and ball player, though he is now merely average at this, rather than amongst the league's worst. Expecting a 31 year old to become Ederson, Alisson or Neuer level at these things at this stage is unrealistic and we should be aiming for best in class.
His performance against crosses is poor. Harrison's model referenced in the tweets earlier takes into account the negative impact of a failed claim (he put out an interesting tweet about a mistake Ederson made when failing to deal with a cross after coming out to punch and how his model punishes this). Despite the fact that he makes less mistakes when claiming crosses, compared to Ederson for example, he's still a net negative compared to the average goalkeeper because he comes for so many fewer, around five times less than average!
Whilst I agree Alisson is head and shoulders better and more well-rounded than the other Premier League goalkeepers, every facet, bar shot-stopping, in which he is more down than up of late, has De Gea either mid-pack or lower. In last season's analysis by Harrison, De Gea ranked lowest of the big 6 goalkeepers for goals prevented overall, despite the fact that he was having a stronger season on shot-stopping. Ederson ended up on a similiar amount because despite being a much weaker shot-stopper because he is much better at everything else. When his shot-stopping isn't elite (most of the last five seasons), De Gea becomes a net negative.
We shouldn't be restricted to the Premier League only when looking for alternatives, someone like Maignan is an Alisson level talent, and Costa, Samba and Mamardashvilli are all excellent shot stoppers who can play, with high potential.
I hope I haven't seemed to be "gleefully ridiculing" De Gea. In the thread about his culpability in the Liverpool game, I clearly stated he wasn't to blame for the scoreline or result and repeatedly defended him on that particular point. De Gea has a been a great servant for the club, I just don't think he's good enough anymore.