There needs to be a balance for Sam appearances. The thing is, when Sam is invigorated and genuinely passionate about the project we get great moments when he's on screen. He's more likely to play that season's host caricature and is capable of coming up with on the fly catalysts for content. The problem occurs when Sam is used as a crutch rather than a means to elevate an already good show.
I've noticed that Sam ramps up his appearances when the show begins to falter after what I like to call it a content plunge. Think of it like a sudden drop in content generation usually (but not always) motivated by a valuable fish leaving. If the plunge is sustained and content never recovers to what it once was the wiggers will recruit a number of tactics to keep audience engagement from fading. One of these is the increased use of Sam, as his face is generally associated with content.
The problem with this is its a short-term fix. Sam, despite his orc appearance is human. The more time he spends on the show, the more bored and disinterested he becomes. He's no longer thinking about what he can do to keep the show stabilized, he's thinking about what he can do to keep himself entertained. This is when we see a ramp up in, "lmao what if we made the fish do xyz," slop. He gets lazy, stops playing his character, and does shit like sit around on a laptop, only intervening when the next shitty idea enters his mind.
Sam is the face of the show to both the audience and the fish, but that also comes with a lot of weight. If the fish (whether unaware or aware of Fishtank) see Sam taking the show seriously, they will take the show seriously. It's a classic psychological response of, "My authority figure/idol is doing this thing, so I should follow in his footsteps." But when Sam stops giving a fuck and just intermingles with the fish like he's one of them, it ruins this dynamic. The fish see he's laid back and uncaring, so they adjust to follow. Mid to late season two was filled with this issue.
And the wiggers then wonder why they're not taken seriously by the fish.