20/20 hindsight. Some injuries are "obvious" what needs to be done, say when you tear an ACL or break a bone. But many others are in a gray area where "let's try rest first" is the physician's recommendation. In Buxton's case they tried light/partial duty, and it didn't work, but this outcome doesn't mean it was "obvious" in April or May or June or July, whatever you consider to be "early."
I'll say that if I were in charge, I wouldn't repeat the same approach in 2024. If he's not good to go in CF, then he DHes for one game and otherwise sits, and if he sits for more than a couple days then he goes to the IL. The DH-to-save-him-for-October approach did not work. But that's not because it was obvious going into 2023; we have 2023 to go from, now.