I think it was a good decision.
Gregg Williams had them #30 in total defense in spite of their front office injecting a lot of legit talent into the D. He didn't do a good job beyond just not being Hue, who was historically terrible. Their resurgence was entirely on a) Baker Mayfield's development, and b) vastly improving the offensive play calling. Both of which are on Kitchens. He earned the job on merit IMO.
The alternatives were all pretty much garbage old retreads (McCarthy got fired by his own QB basically, great idea to give him Baker lol) and guys who didn't even win that much in college. Arians would have been the only slam-dunk, and he wanted to stay in Florida next to his retirement home haha.