You're the one that's saying that the club terminating four player contracts in nearly 6 years is ridiculous.
But I don't have your vast experience of being involved in management of a football club.
I don't know if it is ridiculous or just a relatively normal figure for a club of our size. So I think that in order to form an opinion it's reasonable to get a comparison with other similar size clubs. And Hibs and Hearts are the obvious ones.