“You don’t need to give contemporary US commanders the back hand in order to praise Patton.”
He’s not. Bradley once pointed out to Patton that modern generals would be more administrators and politicians than warriors. He was right.
That's a Hollywood quote.
Read my post 17.
Bradley, Eisenhower, MacArthur and Patton were all accomplished politicians and administrators.
You could not work your way up to general officer in the regular US Army at any point in US history without administrative or political skills.
Only brevet promotions in the midst of actual warfare would enable someone lacking those skillsets to rise in the ranks.
Patton worked his way from captain to brigadier during 1920-1940 in a peacetime army.
You could not do that then, any more than you could do that now, without doing the bureaucratic work necessary.