Because. Notts best. Midfielders are all forest players.
Grant doesn't play centre mid (thank god, it'd be like Burke there all over again) so that's him ruled out of your argument and Yates can't seem to pass a parcel let alone the ball to a team mate so I'd say at the moment Milsom > Hewitt > Yates > (Thompson?) If we wanted a more attacking pair in the middle then Noble would slot in to those rankings as our second choice midfielder after Milsom imo.
Not to be harsh on Yates, I think he's a good player but his passing is woeful and I've probably seen him put in more dangerous tackles so far this season than most of the things Noble got sent off for in his time with us (excluding the ridiculous one where he just kicked that player running past him). Noble's reputation didn't help him with a lot of his bookings/reds imo but in the conference he got sent off 0 times.