That's surprising?
If there's one thing he could always do rather well is shoot and score.
The rest is his head, his mouth, his attitude and most of all, his position relative to teammates. Near always since he joined he was deployed as a winger with some serious presence in front of the box. Eventually folk figured him out and he had to try and adapt while coaches were on rotation. Then got injured. And team turned rather slow and predictable offensively with no one to really threaten the goal bar Benzema, Vini, rarely Bale. And him. Some folk even forgot how good it was to have him back from ACL after return from lockdown in 2020.
He could be a good rotation RCM.
Fede has now shown he can do well either side of the midfield and Eduardo doesnt mind being the one who sits back and dictates along with Fede without vertical movement.
Let Asensio loose with mobile wingers (not current version of Hazard or Vazquez) and let him play passes off Benzema and he'll be useful. He's got the athleticism and skill to play that right-sided #8 role.
Issue isn't him.
It's how you distribute time between him CKM (Modrić would have to take a hit) and Fede-Camavinga without losing an obvious default option that you know you'll want to select when a big game comes.
Using him at RW is missing the point, just throw Rodrygo or Hazard up there
And finally - I'd take him Fede or Eduardo in that RCM role over Pogba anyday. So if this works long term, I'm very down for extending him.