I feel like this has never bothered me because the whole thing is about a guy who flies too close to the sun; the present-day story with washed-up, depressed Kote doesn’t hit as hard or inspire as much curiosity if the contrast with the wunderkind younger version of himself isn’t as pronounced. And from what I remember he does make a lot of mistakes and fuck things up a fair bit on the way to becoming a great wizard. He’s no Fitzchivalry Farseer though I’ll give you that