[Ghosn was the best thing for Nissan, but the Japanese hated one of their big companies being run by a Frenchman.]
While I believe this was a key factor, it’s not clear to me that, from a reliability perspective, Ghosn was the best thing for Nissan. From neck-and-neck with Toyota, Nissan is now on par with Mitsubishi as one of the worst Japanese brands. The two big Japanese marquee names are now Honda and Toyota.
I agree strongly. As a former Nissan owner, he ruined the brand. Financial engineers, not real ones, they cashed out the brand reputation, like Mercedes and Boeing have done.