Wolves started off the season poorly, despite some decent results in Europe.
One of the issues was Neves was playing far too deep, as the deepest player in a 3 man central midfield. He had a lot of the ball in areas where he could spray some passes around, but was having little influence on games and stepping on the toes of defenders, especially Coady.
A lot of praise has gone to Traore this season, but getting the best from him also meant going back to the 3-4-3 (5-2-3) formation that was so effective in the season we won The Championship. That meant Neves playing alongside Moutinho in a 2 man central midfield and he has been pushed further forward. As a result, he is having much more of an influence on games. More passes in the opposition half, more tackles, more interceptions, the stats speak for themselves.
My point is, I'm not sure he will ever be a top deep-lying creative midfield player, simply because that role doesn't really exist anymore. It is a little bit of a luxury nowadays in the same way as the classic number 10 position. Look at the sides that are performing the best at the moment, they all have a defensive minded player in that deep holding role. Rodri at City, Fabinho at Liverpool, Ndidi at Leicester. These are all big, defensive minded players who could play at centre-back if they wanted to. Neves will never be that player, so he is best suited to playing a little further forward. There is so much more to his game that he is almost wasted there.
That doesn't mean to say that he can't come deep, collect the ball off the defence and ping it around, but he can also get on the ball and create chances further up the pitch, which he is doing very well since his position change.
The way United are setting up at the moment, I think Ndidi would be more suitable.