It doesn't have to be one or the other. Also EFAi would much prefer him to get the ball, and knock it forward, than lose the contest. We are far better at keeping the ball in so does give us a chance to reset I50.
There were many, many games last year where we dominated clearances thanks to NN but each of those 'clearances' were kicks straight to JK who had 3 defenders on him.
Case in point, the Richmond game. We should have won that but we just kept on 'knocking it forward' straight to their defenders.
It got predictable, and teams started setting up a spare man behind the ball expecting us to win the ruck contest and kick it straight to them. Then they'd stream forward on the counter attack.
Sure, if our forwards can force those hacked kicks into stoppages, then that's fine, I guess (though it allows their defence to flood back), but it will be taxing on them.
Ultimately we needed to be able to handle that physical pressure better in tight, and set up better around the contest so that we can withstand the tackles and eventually work the ball out and spread toward the corridor. Much higher percentage play having a runner in the corridor compared with a rushed kick from a stoppage IMO.