If you look at Penrith over the last few years, they have followed a similar model; Rely largely on juniors, and bring in players to fill certain gaps where you are short.
Maloney, Tamou, Capewell, Whare are names that spring to mind.
Gus won't have as great of an opportunity to do that off the bat, given our junior development has been on a steep decline since the early 2000's - save for a few guns (Barba being one of them). So I think the moneyball approach for now is very much warranted, and displayed by these signings (at least, if they are indeed across the line). It will take a good decade for us to hit the Penrith-level of junior development-first grade transition, given we have a much smaller pool to pull from, and that the system is currently pretty broken.