If this is true and Coppy didn't have full buy in from ownership on a complete rebuild, then I have to give him a little more credit for the job he has done. Walking the rebuild/compete tightrope is nearly impossible. So if he was forced to do things like sign Markakis, get Aybar included in the Simmons trade, throw good money after bad in the Kemp trade, call up Swanson to a losing team and needlessly start his service clock, and water down the return for Kimbrel by chaining BJ to him, then those were restrictions beyond his control.
However, he didn't commit to a full rebuild and still didn't win any games. So hamstringing the rebuild did absolutely no good. Regardless of whose fault that decision was, it should prove beyond all doubt that the only way to properly rebuild is to go all in on the effort.