As I have been saying in my posts, I don't disagree with you at all. In retrospect, Harbaugh would have been awesome for Iowa State (and I thought so back in 2006 as well).
To be fair about Chizik, he was largely regarded as a coup when we hired him - the national media couldn't believe Pollard pulled that off. The problems were after the fact. Chizik never took the ISU job seriously. His entire plan was to be the CEO-style coach, which would have been fine if he didn't hire his drinking buddies to run the ship. Had he hired someone like Malzahn from the beginning like he was rumored to do had he stuck around for year 3, things would have likely been very different. The other thing is I don't think Mrs. Chizik ever wanted to be there, and I don't think Chizik ever really wanted to be, either. It's the impression I got when I met him on the Tailgate Tour - it felt like "duty". It makes you think the Auburn job was promised to Chizik beforehand, and they basically told him to take the ISU job because it would be difficult to sell a position coach to the fans, that, in the event he flamed out at ISU, it would be easier to sell the fans that "it's Iowa State, not the coach" than it would be to sell a position coach (of course, we all now know what the case really was).
Long story short, if Chizik had respected the ISU job from day 1 the outcome of his tenure might have been entirely different. But alas he didn't and we're here today and shying away from anyone that might even slightly resemble any aspect of Chizik, even if he would take the job seriously, even if he was using the job as a stepping stone.