Assumption?
Its meerly being objective me old china!
You say Rossi has done very little in the three years.
If we take the last 3 years as being 2010/11/12 then (in 2010) finishing 3rd with 10 x podiums including 2 x race wins is not a bad season. DP's 9 x podiums including 4 wins is also a fair tally - the 8 points advantage DP held at the end of the year really showed who was boss! We can also see that the difference between 2010 and 2011 shows a rapid decline when he entered the ducati fold.
If Hayden is the constant to use as a benchmark for the 'ability' of another rider then surely his race finishes and points tally should be used as a reference. or should we look at his tactic of ride fast for 6 laps, destroy tires, fall back fast? His accumulation of points each season, going from 104 in his first year on the might duke, to 163 and then back to 132 clearly shows the progression of the rider/bike and his usefulness as a constant. However maybe that is the right approach, Rossi is using the slowly slowly catchy monkey approach and all he has caught is er, nothing. At least hayden has more 'camera time'!
DP's alien status must surely be up for grabs, he has maintained it this year simply through lack of depth of field - there are only 3 riders on for race wins and no matter how patriotic one can be, CC-AD-BS ain't in the hunt.
Rossi was the benchmark, then he moved to Ducati and stopped being the benchmark. No shame in that.
If he moves to another (Japanese) team then he will be a benchmark again - I hope for positive reasons and not for the same reasons as Capirex.
It's not living in the past Nostro, it's considering the facts.
How do you rationalise your dislike of all things (and people) yellow..?
