A well thought out and balanced post, for much I agree with by the way. Certainly helps that Rhodes has started scoring. It also helps that the cm's get their head up and have been showing more dynamism and looked more comfortable with the ball at their feet.
On your last sentence, although I'm not entirely disagreeing with you, as in theory I actually hope it's true, I will say this; Paul Taylor, Liam Feeney, Chris Brown, Luke Varney, Ousmane Dabo, Yann Songo'o.
We can't say one way or the other if they were brought in to replace Lowe, though Lowe has been selected over both of them whenever he's been available for selection this season. Hopefully that's just down to the others not being match fit.