*****the Church Fathers were all over the board,*****
Which is precisely why there is a need for the Church which is guided and protected by the Holy Spirit.
The Fathers of the Church were not infallibly authorities but they are cited because they wrote on the early theologies about Jesus. They show that the truths that the Church eventually declared and declares as TRUTH were not inventions, but were commonly held beliefs. The Fathers looked to Scripture and tradition to support their theology, exactly as the Church does.
The fact that they were “all over the board” underscores and illumines the absolute need for an authority, an authority that is not private interpretation or prophecy.
Only those areas where the fathers were unanimous are considered to have been infallibly taught.
Trinity, Eucharist, Baptism, Christology. But their writings also have to have been accepted by the ecumenical councils.