You are doing a great job discussing the whys and wherefores of your feelings, but missing the forest for the trees.
I’m saying Sterling is not of the same caliber as the top earners, and thus the press reports of him holding out for their level of pay is unjustified. I have justified MY OPINION by giving MY OPINION on where his calculus falls short.
In MY OPINION, he is technically a bang average player whom Pep has had to spend large amounts of coaching resources on to get him to this level.
You are bringing in tangential issues, comparing his work ethic and other attributes to other players, etc, etc, etc. I admire your tenacity and willingness to explore the long form of an Internet forum, but you are not changing anything.
As an example from the last game...Fernandinho had a stinker. Why? Was his use of time and space poor? No! His passing was out of sorts for him, and his job is to absolutely not give the ball away with our entire midfield and forward line ahead of the ball! In short, he was TECHNICALLY DEFICIENT that day, and his movement in both time and space made not one iota of difference.