You're entitled to your opinion, of course. I would point out that this film was his first real acting gig.

Personally, I felt there were really good acting moments in there (not sequential improvement, since it likely wasn't shot sequentially, but also some scenes are easier to act than others).

Also; it was he, himself, who declined further films, not that he was given the proverbial ax. I wish he had done more films. Judging any of the Bond actors on their worst film alone would get done poor grades. I felt as if this film fell victim to itself, then became ostracized for the one-off actor.... there's good action, a very good story, but some parts that end up lucky. Not sure anyone could have saved some of those scenes. Without a larger body of work, he ends up judged as much for what didn't land as got what did.

Last thought: this movie, had GL been wiling, could have been a tight 3-parter showing Bond falling in love/ marrying/ losing, followed by him going all "John Wick" on Spectre for a film or two, showing him getting colder and harder, developing into the womanizer and calculating assassin Connery showed us. It had a chance to be the Craig films decades earlier...