It seems to me, when Meeke was driving the C3 and crashed a lot, then the popular opinion was, that the car not performing enough and he had to overdrive it quite a lot. Now driving maybe the best car, it is clear he just isn't thinking reasonably most of the time.
He definitely has the speed, but he can't transform them to any results. In this rally he had to play the team player role, but instead wanted to fight Tänak. He could easily collect 4. and 5. places, but when he is trying to beat the best drivers, then mistakes start to happen.