Actually Desmond Llewelyn who played Q said in a interview that Timothy Dalton was the closest to what Flemming has in mind for Bond, of course he never saw saw or worked with Craig.
He also said he liked George Lanzenby, and that while he wasn’t a real actor he was good in the role and got some very bad advice which is why he was only in one picture.
You may be right about Dalton at the time. I think Moore, Brosnan, and Dalton could all have been better in many ways, but the scripts and stunts got almost farcical. Dalton skiing down the Swiss alps in a cello case was just too much.
I thought Lazenby only got the one picture because Connery came back, but I am not sure if Connery had an open invite to return, or if they dumped Lazenby and asked Connery to come back.